Investing.com - The yen gained in Asia on Tuesday, after early weakness, after minutes from the Bank of Japan's July meeting suggested a push for easing further and as investors awaited the outcome of first debate between the two lead candidates in the U.S. presidential election.
USD/JPY changed hands at 100.15, down 0.18%, while AUD/USD traded at 0.7620, down 0.21%.
In Japan, the corporate service price index for August rose 0.2% year-on-year, compared to a 0.3% gain expected. The Bank of Japan also released minutes from its July monetary policy board meeting that saw a push for easier policy.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, rose 0.05% to 95.26.
Market participants were also looking ahead to the highly-anticipated U.S. Presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, scheduled on Monday evening.
Overnight, the dollar remained broadly lower against the other major currencies on Monday, even as data showed that U.S. new home sales fell less than expected last month, as the Federal Reserve’s latest policy decision continued to weigh on the greenback.
The U.S. Commerce Department said new home sales declined by 7.6% to 609,000 units last month, compared to expectations for a drop of 8.8% to 600,000.
New home sales in July were revised up to 659,000 units from a previously reported 654,000 units.
Meanwhile, markets were still recovering from the Fed’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged at the conclusion of its policy meeting last Wednesday, although it hinted that a hike could come in December if the job market continued to improve.
The yen strengthened after Bank of Japan Haruhiko Kuroda said the central bank remained ready to use every available tool to achieve its 2% inflation target, including additional stimulus measures. The BoJ made an unexpected shift last week to targeting interest rates on government bonds.