Yen Little Changed After CPI Data, Dollar Inches Up

Friday,   21-Sep-2018   10:54 AM (IST)

The Japanese yen showed little reaction to the domestic CPI data released Friday that has risen to its highest point in seven months. The U.S. dollar gained but still hovered near two-month lows.The country’s national Consumer Price Index came in at 1.3%, beating the expected 1.1% and improved on the previous reading of 0.9%.The "core-core" CPI, which excludes food and energies prices, came in at 0.4%, also meeting expectations.Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won his third three-year term as head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Thursday.The yen was little changed following the data, with the USD/JPY pair last traded at 112.75, up 0.1%.The USD/CNY pair traded 0.06% lower to 6.8440 as the People's Bank of China (PBOC) set the yuan reference rate at 6.8357 vs Thursday's fix of 6.8530.The AUD/USD pair slipped 0.05% to 0.7289, while the NZD/USD pair jumped 1.2% to 0.6692. Ratings agency S&P affirmed Australia’s sovereign rating at AAA and raised the outlook from negative to stable on Thursday, an improved fiscal outlook and steady revenues supported by the strong economic data and relatively stable commodity prices were cited as the reasons for the upgrade.Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.04% to 93.51. Despite today’s gain, the dollar struggled this week and dipped to 93.829 overnight, its lowest since July 9.