Forexpros – The U.S. dollar rose against the yen on Thursday, after data showed Japan’s current account swung to a record deficit in January while investors awaited the outcome of a highly anticipated Greek debt swap deal.
USD/JPY hit 81.39 during early European trade, the pair’s highest since March 6; the pair subsequently consolidated at 81.32, adding 0.28%.
The pair was likely to find support at 80.83, the low of March 1 and resistance at 81.65, the high of February 27.
Government data showed earlier that Japan’s current account balance swung to a record deficit of JPY437.3 billion in January, due to lower exports and higher fuel imports during the Chinese Lunar New Year holidays.
A separate report showed that Japan’s gross domestic product declined 0.2% in the fourth quarter, in line with expectations, after a 0.6% fall the previous month.
Earlier Thursday, Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said the central bank will do its utmost to beat deflation and keep a close eye on the economic and price outlook, signaling readiness to loosen monetary policy again if needed to support the economy.
Meanwhile, market sentiment improved after reports on Wednesday that a number of major European financial institutions had signed up to the Greek bond swap deal, which is aimed at writing down 53.5% of the country’s EUR177 billion debt.
The yen was also lower against the euro with EUR/JPY climbing 0.50%, to hit 107.16.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to produce government data on initial jobless claims.
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