Investing.com - The dollar gained against the yen on Monday in Asia as trade figures from Japan showed a wider than expected trade gap with U.S. markets shut for a public holiday and attention turning to Greece and the progress of its bailout program.
Japan said exports rose 1.3% in January, well below the 4.7% gain expected, while imports jumped 8.5%. more than the 4.7% increase seen for a trade deficit of ¥1.087 trillion ($9.66 billion), compared to a gap of ¥637 billion expected. Japan's exports to the U.S. fell 6.6% and increased 3.1% to China year-on-year.
USD/JPY changed hands at 112.91, up 0.06%, while AUD/USD traded at 0.7668, up 0.08%. EUR/USD traded at 1.0628, up 0.12% as euro zone finance ministers have their regular meeting on Monday in which the status of the bailout program for Greece will be a key topic.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was last quoted at 100.89.
Earlier in New Zealand, input producer prices rose 1.0% in the fourth quarter, a tad higher than the 0.9% gain seen quarter-on-quarter, while output prices jumped 1.5%, well above the 0.6% increase seen. NZD/USD inched up 0.01% to 0.7180.
In Singapore, Cleveland Federal Reserve President Loretta Mester said on Monday she would be comfortable raising interest rates at this point if the economy kept performing the way it did. "We did have a temporary oil price shock which held down inflation, we had the dollar appreciation which held down inflation. Those have passed through and the trend in inflation is, it's moving up," Mester said at a central banking seminar.
In the holiday shortened week ahead, the Fed is to publish the minutes of its February meeting on Wednesday, which will be scrutinized for clues on the timing of the next rate hike.
Investors will be looking to U.S. housing data in order to see whether the rise in consumer spending and inflation is translating into higher house prices and a pick-up in home sales.
Markets will also be watching survey data on private sector activity in the euro zone on Tuesday.
Last week, the dollar rose against most of the other major currencies on Friday, with the exception of the yen, as political turbulence in the U.S. continued to underpin safe haven demand.
The euro weakened broadly amid concerns that the French left could unite behind one candidate in the upcoming elections, possibly knocking centrist and right nominees out of the race in the first round. This possible alliance could increase the chances of anti-European Union Marine Le Pen winning the presidency in the second-round runoff.
Weakness in the euro helped shore up the dollar which had drifted broadly lower on Thursday as political uncertainty in the U.S. prompted investors to take profits in the wake of recent gains in the currency, despite better-than-expected economic data and a brighter outlook for interest rate hikes.
Data on Wednesday showed that U.S. consumer price inflation jumped 0.6% in January, the biggest increase in almost four years. Another report showed that U.S. retail sales also outstripped expectations, increasing 0.4% last month.
The upbeat data came a day after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said in testimony to the U.S. Senate that the bank is on course to raise interest rates at one of its forthcoming meetings.