Investing.com - The dollar backed off one-week lows against the yen on Thursday, following the release of stronger-than-expected data on U.S. retail sales and initial jobless claims.
USD/JPY was last down 0.10% to 102.66 after falling to one-week lows of 102.42 earlier in the session.
The pair was likely to find support at 102.25 and resistance at 103.09, Wednesday’s high.
The dollar found support after the Commerce Department reported that retail sales rose 0.3% in February, ending two months of declines. Market expectations had been for an increase of 0.2%.
Core retail sales, which exclude automobile sales, also rose 0.2% last month, ahead of expectations for a 0.3% rise.
Separately, the Department of Labor said the number of people filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell by 9,000 to a three month low of 315,000 last week, from the previous week’s revised total of 324,000.
Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to rise by 6,000 last week.
Demand for the safe haven yen continued to be underpinned after weaker-than-expected data from China pointed to a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy at the start of the year.
Chinese industrial production rose 8.6% on a year-over-year basis in the first two months of 2014, according to data released on Thursday, missing market expectations for an increase of 9.5%.
Retail sales figures also undershot expectations, expanding 11.8% from the same period a year earlier.
China releases economic data for the first two months of the year together, to even out distortions related to the Lunar New Year holiday.
The data comes just days after China released a report showing that exports fell sharply in February. The weak data has fuelled expectations that China’s central bank could relax monetary policy to help shore up growth.
Meanwhile, investors remained wary as tensions between Russia and the West escalated ahead of Sunday's referendum in Ukraine’s Crimea region, now controlled by pro-Russian forces, on whether citizens want to join Russia.
Elsewhere, the euro eased against the dollar, but continued to remain supported close to two-and-a-half year highs. EUR/USD was up 0.29% to 1.3943, after rising to highs of 1.3966 earlier in the session, the strongest level since October 31, 2011.
The euro remained broadly stronger after last week’s decision by the European Central Bank to refrain from implementing policy measures to shore up growth in the euro area, despite forecasting low inflation for some years to come.