On Thursday the greenback rose to one-and-a-half week highs against the yen. The Japanese currency also declined against the euro.
Demand for the greenback was boosted by
Wednesday's U.S. home sales data and as investors eyed additional U.S.
report to be released later in the day.
The U.S. is expected to report on initial jobless claims and new home sales later in the global day.
USD/JPY hit 120.09 during European afternoon trade, the pair's highest since April 14; the pair subsequently consolidated at 120.02, adding 0.10%. The pair was likely to find support at 119.35, Wednesday's low and resistance at 102.63, the high of April 10.
On Wednesday the U.S. National Association of
Realtors said that existing home sales rose 6.1% last month
to 5.19 million units from a revised total units of 4.89 million.
Analysts had expected existing home sales to rise 3.0% in March. The positive news gave a boost to the US currency. However, the recent series of negative data on the US economy has kept the greenback's gains capped.
In Japan, data earlier showed that Japan's trade balance got into a surplus of 229 billion in March from a deficit of 425 billion the previous month while analysts had expected the trade balance to hit a surplus of 50 billion last month.
Japanese manufacturing activity contracted in April for the first time in almost a year as domestic orders and output fell, which could fuel concerns that the country's modest economic recovery is losing momentum.
The Markit/JMMA flash Japan Manufacturing Purchasing
Managers Index (PMI) fell to a seasonally adjusted 49.7 in April from a
final 50.3 in March, Reuters has reported.
The Japanese currency was lower against the euro, with EUR/JPY gaining 0.46% to 129.20.
In the euro zone, Markit said that the composite purchasing managers' index, which includes manufacturing activity and services, fell to 53.5 this month from 54.0 in March, compared to expectations for a rise to 54.4.
