The yen was slightly higher on Thursday after the central bank's minutes.
USD/JPY was unchanged at 121.56.
The Bank of Japan board expressed worries that the recent fall in crude oil prices could delay 2% CPI and blamed businesses for a slow rise in wages amid record profits, the minutes of the bank's Oct. 6-7 policy meeting released Thursday showed.
Many members believed the year-on-year rise in the CPI would accelerate as the base effect of last year's plunge in crude oil prices dissipated and would reach around 2% "around the first half of fiscal 2016" because the output gap and inflation expectations were "likely to improve steadily and increase."
The greenback extended gains against the other major
currencies overnight after the release of several U.S. economic reports.
On Wednesday payroll processing firm ADP reported that U.S. non-farm private employment climbed by 182,000 last month, above expectations for an increase of 180,000. The economy created 190,000 jobs in September, whose figure was downwardly revised from a previously reported increase of 200,000.
The U.S. Commerce Department said in a separate report that the trade deficit dipped to $40.81 billion in September from $48.02 billion in August, whose figure was revised from a previously reported deficit of $48.3 billion. Economists had expected the U.S. trade deficit to narrow to $41.1 billion in September.
Also Wednesday, the Institute of Supply Management said its non-manufacturing purchasing manager's gauge climbed to 59.1 last month from 56.9 in September, well ahead of above forecasts of 56.5.
Elsewhere in the currency market, AUD/USD dipped 0.13% to 0.7139, while NZD/USD climbed 0.07% to 0.6599.
Asian shares traded mixed Thursday. China stocks seem to return to the bull-market territory, as two days of steep gains added steam to the slow rebound that has been under way since August.
The Shanghai Composite Index gained as much as 1.86% earlier Thursday, a 21% rise from its close on Aug. 26 which marked the
bottom of a summer selloff. The benchmark would close in bull-market
territory, defined as a rise of 20% from a recent low, if it keeps up
its momentum by the close.
Thursday’s gains add to a 4% jump on Wednesday when mainland shares had rallied on speculation, fueled by out-of-date comments by the central bank, that Chinese authorities would roll out a new trading link to further open up their market to foreign investors.
The Shenzhen Composite Index, a benchmark of the mainland’s smaller stock-market, was up 0.46%. It jumped 5% the previous day, its largest daily percentage gain in almost two-months. Shenzhen has now rallied 33% from its recent bottom on September 15.
A recovery of Chinese shares, which shed 43% from June to August, regained ground ahead of an important meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou this Saturday, the first between China and Taiwan since the two sides split in 1949 after the Chinese civil war.
In the rest of Asia, the Nikkei Stock Average rose 1.0%. The Hang Seng Index was down 0.16%
Australia’s S&P ASX 200 was off 0.89% and South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.16%.
Shares in Japan extended a rally from Wednesday when state-owned Japan Post Holdings Co. and its financial units jumped in an initial public offering that was the world’s largest since Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. made its debut last year.
Japan Post Holdings Co. was up 3.41% in Asia trade, while its financial units Japan Post Insurance Co. and Japan Post Bank Co. were up 13.41% and 6.22% respectively.
Shares of SoftBank Group Corp. dropped 1.5% before regaining 0.93% after the company’s
chairman said during an earnings presentation Wednesday that thousands
of jobs would be cut at Sprint Corp. as part of a turnaround effort at
the struggling U.S. wireless carrier.
SoftBank bought Sprint in 2013. The bank also reported earnings that were below economists' expectations, logging a net profit of 213 billion Japanese yen ($1.76 billion) in the July-to-September quarter.
