Investing.com - The dollar fell to three-month lows against the yen on Monday as investors avoided the single currency in wake of hit-or-miss data out of the U.S. last week, while concerns the Ukraine crisis may escalate and threaten U.S. recovery also dampened demand for the greenback.
In U.S. trading, USD/JPY was down 0.24% and trading at 101.28, up from a session low of 101.11 and off a high of 101.60.
The pair was expected to test support at 100.75, the low from Feb. 4, and resistance at 102.36, last Tuesday's high.
Investors avoided the dollar on Monday to digest last week's mixed bag of economic indicators.
The preliminary Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index fell to 81.8 in May from 84.1 in April, confounding market expectations for a 84.5 reading, which softened the dollar.
On the flip side, the Census Bureau reported that U.S. building permits rose 8% to 1.080 million units last month, up from an upwardly revised 1.000 million in March. Analysts were expecting building permits to rise to 1.010 million units in April.
The report also showed that housing starts rose to 1.072 million units in April from 947,000 in March, whose figure was revised up from a previously estimated 946,000.
April's number far surpassed analysts' forecasts for a 980,000 reading.
The Federal Reserve will release the minutes of its latest policy meeting on Wednesday, and investors opted for safe-haven yen positions ahead of time.
Geopolitical concerns also softened the dollar by stoking concerns the U.S. may become deeper involved in the Ukraine crisis and risk seeing recovery suffer as a result.
Government forces and pro-Russian separatists in the eastern reaches of Ukraine continued to clash on Monday, resulting in the death of one Ukrainian soldier.
Ukraine will hold elections on May 25, and concerns persist that Russia will meddle in the voting and escalate the crisis.
Elsewhere, tensions in Libya flared after gunmen stormed parliament on Sunday in some of the worst violence the country has seen since the 2011 war that ousted Muammar Qaddafi.
The yen, meanwhile, was up against the euro and up against the pound, with EUR/JPY down 0.09% at 138.90, and GBP/JPY trading down 0.23% at 170.30.
On Tuesday in the U.S., Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Charles Plosser and Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley are to speak.