Investing.com - The U.S. dollar was higher against the yen on Friday, as the minutes of the Bank of Japan's latest policy meeting weighed on demand for the greenback, while Thursday's upbeat U.S. data continued to support the greenback.
USD/JPY hit 101.86 during late Asian trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 101.75, gaining 0.21%.
The pair was likely to find support at 100.80, the low of February 5 and resistance at 102.16, the high of April 9.
In the minutes of the BoJ's March policy meeting, board members said "it is appropriate for the BOJ to continue to steadily pursue quantitative and qualitative monetary easing in accordance with the current guidelines."
The minutes fuelled speculation that the central bank could implement additional stimulus measures in the near future, although such a possibility was not mentionned by board members at the March policy meeting.
Meanwhile, demand for the dollar remained supported after the Labor Department reported on Thursday that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending April 4 fell by 30,000 to a seasonally adjusted 300,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised total of 332,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to decline to 320,000.
Continuing jobless claims declined to 2.77 million, the lowest since January 2008.
The yen was lower against the euro, with EUR/JPY rising 0.26% to 141.37.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release data on producer price inflation, as well as the preliminary report on the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index.