Forex - Japanese yen gains in Asia ahead of BoJ minutes, Aussie down

Investing.com - The Japanese yen gained in early Asian trade on Friday ahead of the release of central bank board meeting minutes.

USD/JPY traded at 107.86, down 0.20%, while AUD/USD changed hands at 0.8773, down 0.78%. EUR/USD traded at 1.2689, down 0.36%.

The Bank of Japan releases monetary policy meeting minutes at 0850 local time. At the same time Japan bank lending figures for September are due along with the teritiary activity index where a 0.2% gain is expected.

In Australia at 1030 local time come August home loans , with a 0.1% rise seen, and housing finance.

Overnight, the dollar firmed against most major currencies in the wake of upbeat U.S. jobless claims data, while dovish comments from European Central Bank Mario Draghi pushed the euro lower and further bolstered the greenback's appeal.

The U.S. Department of Labor reported earlier that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending Oct. 4 fell by 1,000 to 287,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 288,000.

Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 6,000 to 294,000 last week, and the numbers gave the greenback room to brush off a dovish Federal Reserve report.

The dollar softened broadly on Wednesday after the minutes of the Fed's Sept. 16-17 policy meeting revealed that a number of monetary authorities believe the bank's current language painted the wrong picture on the timing of rate hikes and that an interest rate rise should be tied to U.S. economic recovery.

The minutes also showed that the U.S. central bank cut its growth outlook due to a stronger dollar and concerns over global weakness.

Elsewhere, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi spoke earlier and reiterated that the institution's willingness to loosen policy to steer the euro area away from deflationary decline if needed, adding that markets are expecting the bank to begin hiking interest rates some time in 2017.

The US Dollar Index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.01% at 85.66.

On Friday, the U.S. is to round up the week with data on import prices.