Investing.com - The U.S. dollar fell to three-week lows against the yen on Friday, as sentiment on the greenback remained vulnerable after the previous session's downbeat data and investors eyed additional U.S. reports to be released later in the trading session.
USD/JPY hit 118.57 during European afternoon trade, the pair's lowest since March 26; the pair subsequently consolidated at 118.73, sliding 0.25%.
The pair was likely to find support at 118.30, the low of March 26 and resistance at 119.48, Thursday's high.
The dollar remained under pressure after the U.S. Department of Labor reported on Thursday that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits increased more than expected to 294,000 last week.
Separately, the U.S. Commerce Department said that the number of building permits issued in March declined by 5.7% last month to 1.039 million units.
The weak data fuelled further speculation that the Federal Reserve could delay hiking interest rates until late 2015, instead of tightening midyear.
The yen was lower against the euro, with EUR/JPY rising 0.21% to 128.31.
The single currency found support after revised data showed that euro zone consumer price inflation rose 1.1% last month, in line with expectations and up from a preliminary estimate of 0.6%. Euro zone inflation declined by 0.3% in February.
The rate grew closer to the European Central Bank's target of near but just below 2%.
Core CPI, which excludes food, energy, alcohol, and tobacco costs rose 1.4% in February, up from an initial estimate of 0.6%.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release data on consumer prices and consumer sentiment.