Forex - Yen holds stronger after note of dissent in May BoJ minutes

Investing.com - The yen held stronger rafter the release of central bank minutes from the May meeting that noted questions by one member on the ultimate impact of aggressive easing.

The benefits of the Bank of Japan's aggressive easing are being outweighed by side effects, one board member said in the minutes of the May released Wednesday.

Board member Takahide Kiuchi in particular has dissented at recent board meetings and called for a cut in outright annual government bond purchases to Y45 trillion from Y80 trillion now.

At the May meeting, the board decided by an 8 to 1 vote to leave the bank's policy target unchanged while revising up its economic assessment slightly and warning about the downside risk from Europe's low growth and inflation.

In the minutes, there was also concern raised about a slowdown in China and whether inflation expectations overall would rise.

At the same time of the minutes, Japan release May service producer prices, which rose 0.6% year-on-year, down slightly from an 0.7% gain in April.

Elsewhere, Greece's left-wing government expressed confidence on Tuesday that parliament would approve a debt deal with lenders, despite an angry reaction from some of its own lawmakers, Reuters reported.

Concessions offered by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, including hikes to tax and pension contributions, garnered a cautious welcome from euro zone leaders but triggered a furious reaction from some leftists in the ruling Syriza party.

Fresh talks were scheduled on Thursday, leaving just 48 hours for a detailed agreement to be finalized.

The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, fell 0.08% at 95.54.

Overnight, the dollar remained broadly higher against a basket of other major currencies on Tuesday, after the release of mixed U.S. economic reports, as ongoing uncertainty over the outcome of Greek debt talks continued to weigh on market sentiment.

The U.S. Commerce Department reported on Tuesday that new home sales jumped by 2.2% to 546,000 units last month, the highest level since February 2008, compared to expectations for a gain of 1.5% to 525,000.

A separate report showed that total U.S. durable goods orders, which include transportation items, declined by 1.8% last month, worse than expectations for a drop of 0.6%.

Core durable goods orders, excluding volatile transportation items, inched up by 0.5% in May, missing forecasts for an increase of 0.6%.