Thursday saw the yen weaker in Asia trade, as risk appetite improved on steady Chinese economic data and strong stock market performance, spurring a selloff in the Japanese currency.
USD/JPY was last at 120.18, up 0.26% from 119.88 late Wednesday in New
York, erasing much of its overnight losses on a disappointing Chicago
purchasing managers index that pulled the U.S. currency down to 119.55 yen.
The euro edged up to ¥133.85 from 134.00, while the pound gained to 181.75 from 181.35.
Earlier, China’s official manufacturing purchasing managers index climbed to 49.8 in September from 49.7 the previous month, with the latest monthly number beating the median 49.7 forecast from a Wall Street Journal survey of nine economists.
The Nikkei Stock Average was up 1.92% after gains in U.S. stocks overnight, on track to close higher for the second straight session. The gauge lost more than 5% earlier in the week and dropped to as low as 16901.49 Tuesday.
Risk-sensitive currencies also rallied on China data, with the Australian dollar rising to ¥84.69 from ¥84.12. The Aussie also climbed to $0.7056 from $0.7017.
Earlier, the Bank of Japan issued a quarterly tankan business sentiment
survey measuring the mood among big
manufacturers about present business conditions. It fell to plus 12 from
plus 15 in June despite record-high profits.
The result marked the first decrease since December and was worse than the plus 13 expected by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal and Nikkei.
