Investing.com – The dollar hovered near five-month highs well above the 93 level in Asia on Friday morning, after climbing to this year’s fresh high at 93.46 overnight. Japan reported CPI data that missed expectation and failed to meet its 2% inflation target again, sending the yen lower.
The U.S. dollar index that tracks the greenback against a basket of six major currencies last stood at 93.38 at 10:47PM ET (02:47GMT).
The rising U.S. 10-year Treasury yield was cited as tailwind for the dollar. The yield further rose to 3.122%, up 0.43% on Friday morning - the highest level since 2011. Higher yields triggered a spike in demand for the greenback.
The USD/JPY pair added 0.18% to 110.97. Japan’s year-on-year National CPI for April missed expectations, coming in at 0.6% versus the estimated 0.7%. Inflation continues to lag behind the Bank of Japan's target of 2%. Two days ago, the country’s GDP also missed expectation and ended the longest run of economic growth since the 1980’s.
In China, the People\'s Bank of China set the set the reference rate for the yuan against the dollar, the mid-point from which the currency is allowed to trade, at 6.3763 versus the previous day's 6.3679. The USD/CNY pair gained 0.06% to trade at 3707.
As for the latest development of the Sino-U.S. trade talk, China was reported to offer U.S. President Donald Trump a $200 billion cut in its annual trade deficit with them. Investors keep an eye on the developments, which could be directional drivers for Asia shares. Should the shares rally, the anti-risk yen could fall while the sentiment-linked Aussie could rise.
Down under, the AUD/USD pair added 0.04% at 0.7515.