Investing.com – The Japanese yen weakened against the dollar after the Bank of Japan board unanimously on Friday said it would stand pat on its monetary base policy target and keep the pace of asset purchases steady.
USD/JPY traded at 104.41, up 0.16%, after the BOJ said it would keep money market operations so that the monetary base increases at an annual pace of about Y60 to Y70 trillion, it said, adding that financial asset purchases will also proceed as laid out in April with holdings of Japanese government bonds to increase at an annual pace of about Y50 trillion.
In the near-term outlook, the bank said the economy will "basically maintain the moderate recovery trend" despite sharp fluctuations in domestic demand - high spending before the April 2014 sales tax hike.
The board review will be followed by a 1530 Tokyo time (0630 GMT) press conference by Governor Haruhiko Kuroda.
Elsewhere in Asia, AUD/USD traded at 0.8874, up 0.10%,
Overnight, the dollar advanced against most major currencies after the Federal Reserve said it was trimming its USD85 billion monthly bond-buying program by USD10 billion next month, though lackluster economic indicators watered down the greenback's gains.
Fed bond purchases tend to weaken the dollar by driving down long-term interest rates that send investors to assets like stocks to encourage investing and hiring.
The U.S. central bank reiterated that interest rates are likely to remain low even after the unemployment rate drops below 6.5%, the threshold at which the Fed has previously said it would start to consider rate increases.
Meanwhile, less-than-stellar economic indicators in the U.S. watered down the greenback's gains.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said that its manufacturing index jumped to 7.0 for December from November’s 6.5 reading, though analysts were expecting the index to rise to 10.0 this month.
A separate report showed that U.S. existing home sales declined 4.3% to a seasonally adjusted 4.90 million units in November from 5.12 million in October. Analysts were expecting U.S. existing home sales to fall 1.5% to 5.03 million units last month.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.10% at 80.85.
On Friday, the U.S. is to round up the week with revised data on third-quarter GDP.
USD/JPY traded at 104.41, up 0.16%, after the BOJ said it would keep money market operations so that the monetary base increases at an annual pace of about Y60 to Y70 trillion, it said, adding that financial asset purchases will also proceed as laid out in April with holdings of Japanese government bonds to increase at an annual pace of about Y50 trillion.
In the near-term outlook, the bank said the economy will "basically maintain the moderate recovery trend" despite sharp fluctuations in domestic demand - high spending before the April 2014 sales tax hike.
The board review will be followed by a 1530 Tokyo time (0630 GMT) press conference by Governor Haruhiko Kuroda.
Elsewhere in Asia, AUD/USD traded at 0.8874, up 0.10%,
Overnight, the dollar advanced against most major currencies after the Federal Reserve said it was trimming its USD85 billion monthly bond-buying program by USD10 billion next month, though lackluster economic indicators watered down the greenback's gains.
Fed bond purchases tend to weaken the dollar by driving down long-term interest rates that send investors to assets like stocks to encourage investing and hiring.
The U.S. central bank reiterated that interest rates are likely to remain low even after the unemployment rate drops below 6.5%, the threshold at which the Fed has previously said it would start to consider rate increases.
Meanwhile, less-than-stellar economic indicators in the U.S. watered down the greenback's gains.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said that its manufacturing index jumped to 7.0 for December from November’s 6.5 reading, though analysts were expecting the index to rise to 10.0 this month.
A separate report showed that U.S. existing home sales declined 4.3% to a seasonally adjusted 4.90 million units in November from 5.12 million in October. Analysts were expecting U.S. existing home sales to fall 1.5% to 5.03 million units last month.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.10% at 80.85.
On Friday, the U.S. is to round up the week with revised data on third-quarter GDP.