Investing.com - The dollar was lower against the yen on Monday as poor Chinese trade data and downbeat economic reports from Japan weighed on sentiment, boosting safe haven demand.
USD/JPY fell to session lows of 102.94 and was last trading at 103.04, down 0.20%
The pair was likely to find support at 102.50 and resistance at 103.60.
Data released over the weekend showed that Chinese exports fell 18.1% on a year-over-year basis in February, confounding expectations for a 6.8% increase, following a rise of 10.6% in January.
A separate report showed that the annual rate of inflation in China slowed to 2.0% in February, from 2.5% in January.
The data added to fears over a slowdown in the world’s second largest economy, and overshadowed last Friday’s stronger-than-forecast U.S. jobs report for February.
The U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs in February, the Labor Department reported, well above expectations for 149,000 new jobs.
The yen received an additional boost after data on Monday showed that Japan posted record current account deficit of ¥1.589 trillion in January and fourth quarter growth was revised down.
Japan's economy grew 0.2% in the final three months of 2013, below the preliminary estimate for growth of 0.3%. On a year-over-year basis, the economy expanded by 0.7%, compared to an initial estimate of 1.0%.
The euro was also lower against the yen, with EUR/JPY slipping 0.21% to 142.98.
Elsewhere, the euro was steady against the dollar, with EUR/USD inching up 0.03% to 1.3881, not far from Friday’s two-and-a-half year highs of 1.3914.
Demand for the single currency continued to be underpinned as expectations for further easing by the European Central Bank diminished after the bank left rates on hold last week, despite the subdued inflation outlook for the euro area.