Investing.com - The dollar was holding close to session highs against the yen on Thursday as markets digested a flurry of broadly upbeat U.S. economic reports.
USD/JPY was last up 0.28% to 101.66, close to session highs of 101.76.
The pair was likely to find support at 101.20 and resistance at 102.05.
The dollar remained supported after the National Association of Realtors said existing home sales increased 1.3% in April to an annual rate of 4.65 million units.
While analysts had expected existing home sales to rise 2.2% to 4.68 million last month, the increase indicated that the housing market is regaining momentum.
A separate report showed that U.S. manufacturing activity expanded at the fastest rate in three months in May.
Markit said that its preliminary U.S. manufacturing index rose to 56.2 this month from a final reading of 55.4 in April, and ahead of expectations of 55.5.
The data came after the Labor Department reported that the number of people filing for initial jobless benefits last week increased by 28,000 to 326,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 298,000, which was the lowest reading since May 2007.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 12,000 to 310,000.
The dollar strengthened against the yen earlier Thursday after data showing that Chinese manufacturing activity improved in May dampened safe haven demand for the Japanese currency.
The preliminary reading of China’s HSBC manufacturing index rose to a five month high of 49.7 this month, but still remained below the 50 level separating contraction from expansion.
The dollar was higher against the euro, with EUR/USD down 0.20% to 1.3659, not far from the two-and-a-half month trough of 1.3633 reached on Wednesday.
The euro found support against the dollar and the yen earlier after data showed that the recovery in the euro zone’s private sector continued this month but expectations for easing by the European Central Bank continued to weigh.
Manufacturing activity in the euro zone expanded at the slowest rate in six months, but the region’s service sector expanded at the fastest rate in almost three years.
Germany’s private sector continued to grow strongly this month but the French private sector fell back into contraction territory.
Elsewhere, EUR/JPY was up 0.08% to 138.86, holding above Wednesday’s more than three-month trough of 138.13.