On Thursday the U.S. dollar was on its way to strengthening against the yen for a third day, which looked like a period of mostly range-bound trading before next week's highly anticipated Federal Reserve policy meeting.
Fed officials are set to begin their next two-day policy meeting on Wednesday.
Several market analysts and economists think they could vote to raise interest rates next week, while others are convinced they will delay the hike. Higher interest rates would raise the return on dollar-denominated assets, making them more attractive to foreign investors.
Latin America was in focus today, where the Brazilian real dropped against the dollar after Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services downgraded the country’s sovereign debt
into junk territory.
The Brazilian currency gave up 2.5% of its value to trade at 3.8779 to the dollar, another fall in a string of all-time lows.
The greenback was up 0.23% from its level Wednesday evening in New York to ¥120.80. The euro was up 0.01% at $1.1208.
Britain's currency strengthened after Bank of England officials said in a statement issued after a meeting of policy makers that the British economy is sufficiently robust to face the slowing economic growth in China and any dangers posed by the mounting eurozone debt crisis.
The central bank’s rate-setting committee voted to keep its benchmark interest rate steady at 0.5%.
After climbing to a session high of $1.5449, the pound trimmed its gains and settled at $1.5412.
