Investing.com - The dollar rose against the yen on Friday after investors sold the Japanese currency for profits.
The yen firmed on safe-haven demand after a Malaysian Airlines plane crashed in Ukraine on Thursday, with the U.S. blaming pro-Russian separatists for shooting the aircraft down.
In U.S. trading, USD/JPY was up 0.23% and trading at 101.40, up from a session low of 101.09 and off a high of 101.45.
The pair was expected to test support at 101.07, the low from July 10, and resistance at 101.80, Wednesday's high.
The dollar took a dive against the yen on Thursday as investors digested the fallout from a downed Malaysian Airlines flight over Ukraine, with the U.S. blaming Ukrainian pro-Russian separatists for shooting down the aircraft, killing 298 aboard.
Concerns even more sanctions may be slapped on Russia in wake of the incident softened the dollar by fueling fears the fallout will weigh on global recovery, thus prompting the Federal Reserve and central banks around the world to keep policy loose for longer than once anticipated.
U.S. Barack President Obama said Friday, however, that sanctions were aimed at having minimal impacts on the global economy, while profit takers wiped out the yen's gains, giving the dollar room to regain composure despite disappointing U.S. sentiment data.
The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary consumer sentiment index fell to a four-month low of 81.3 in July from 82.5 in June, confounding expectations for rise to 83.0.
Separately, the minutes of the Bank of Japan's June meeting released earlier showed that members agreed that the country's economic recovery remains on track and that consumer inflation will slow only temporarily.
Some BoJ board members warned that tough global competition and moves to produce locally for consumers are hitting exports, according to the minutes of June 12-13 policy meeting.
"A few members pointed to the possibility that structural factors such as the declines in Japanese firms' competitiveness and the shift of their production sites overseas could be influencing exports to a larger degree than expected," the minutes read.
After the BoJ minutes, Japan said May average wages were revised down to a gain of 0.6% year-on-year from a preliminary increase of 0.8%, though it was still the third straight rise.
The yen, meanwhile, was down against the euro and down against the pound, with EUR/JPY up 0.15% at 137.06, and GBP/JPY trading up 0.07% at 173.12.