Forex - Japanese yen weaker against dollar ahead of BoJ Feb minutes

Investing.com - The Japanese yen eased against the dollar in early Asian trade Friday ahead of the release of board minutes from the February policy review and an otherwise light data day in the region.

USD/JPY traded at 101.87, up 0.06%, with the the minutes of the BOJ Feb. 17-18 board meeting due at 0850 Tokyo (2350 GMT).

The BOJ voted unanimously to maintain the pace of its large-scale financial asset purchases and to double the scale of its program to make low-interest loans to financial institutions that are leading to or investing in growth-oriented sectors and projects.

Later in the day, Japan's ministry of finance will announce 5-year JGB auction results at 1245 Tokyo time (0345 GMT).

AUD/USD traded at 0.9040, up 0.09%, early in Asia.

Overnight, the dollar traded mixed against most major currencies, erasing earlier losses after better-than-expected U.S. retail sales and jobless claims reports fueled demand for the currency.

News reports that Russia is conducting new military exercises in the Crimea region of Ukraine spooked investors and sparked demand for safe-haven asset classes, the dollar and yen especially.

Tensions between Russia and the West have remained high ahead of Sunday's referendum in Ukraine’s Crimea region, controlled by pro-Russian forces, on whether citizens there want to join Russia.

Those concerns elevated the dollar and erased earlier losses stemming from upbeat takes on the euro area economy from various policymakers.

The Commerce Department reported that U.S. retail sales rose 0.3% in February, ending two months of declines and better than market expectations for a 0.2% increase.

Core retail sales, which exclude automobile sales, also rose 0.3% last month, ahead of expectations for a 0.2% rise.

Separately, the Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing new claims for unemployment benefits in the U.S. fell by 9,000 to a three-month low of 315,000 last week.

Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to rise by 6,000 last week.

Soft production data out of China fueled demand for both the dollar and the yen.

Chinese industrial production rose 8.6% in the first two months of 2014, according to data released on Thursday, missing market expectations for a 9.5% increase, while Chinese retail sales rose by 11.8%, beneath market forecasts for a 13.5% gain.

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.02% at 79.74.

On Friday, the U.S. is to round up the week with data on producer price inflation and preliminary data from the University of Michigan on consumer sentiment.