Investing.com - The U.S. dollar edged up to one-and-a-half week highs against the yen on Thursday, as demand for the greenback remained supported by Wednesday's U.S. home sales data and as investors eyed additional U.S. report to be released later in the day.
USD/JPY hit 120.09 during European afternoon trade, the pair's highest since April 14; the pair subsequently consolidated at 120.02, adding 0.10%.
The pair was likely to find support at 119.35, Wednesday's low and resistance at 102.63, the high of April 10.
The dollar remained supported after the U.S. National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday that existing home sales rose 6.1% last month to 5.19 million units from a revised total units of 4.89 million. Analysts had expected existing home sales to rise 3.0% in March.
The greenback's gains were held in check however, as investors pushed back expectations for higher U.S. interest rates after a recent streak of soft economic data dampened optimism on the country's recovery.
In Japan, data earlier showed that Japan's trade balance swung into a surplus of 229 billion in March from a deficit of 425 billion the previous month. Analysts had expected the trade balance to hit a surplus of 50 billion last month.
The yen was lower against the euro, with EUR/JPY gaining 0.46% to 129.20.
In the euro zone, market research group Markit said that the composite purchasing managers' index, which includes manufacturing activity and services, fell to 53.5 this month from 54.0 in March, compared to expectations for a rise to 54.4.
Germany's manufacturing PMI ticked down to 54.2 this month from a reading of 55.4 in March, while the services PMI slipped to 54.4 in April from 55.4 the previous month.
Markit also said that France's manufacturing PMI fell to 48.4 this month from 48.8 in March, while the services PMI slipped to 50.8 in April from a reading of 52.4 the previous month.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to report on initial jobless claims and new home sales.