The yen extended its towering rally on Friday and marched toward its best week against the dollar in nearly five months, as traders ramped up expectations that the end of Japan's ultra-low interest rates was closing in.
The broad strength from the yen kept a lid on the dollar, which stayed on the defensive ahead of the closely-watched U.S. nonfarm payrolls report due later on Friday.
Bank of Japan (BOJ) governor Kazuo Ueda said on Thursday the central bank had several options on which interest rates to target once it pulls short-term borrowing costs out of negative territory, and had on the same day met with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Markets took those comments as the clearest sign yet that the BOJ could soon phase out its ultra-loose monetary policy and catapulted the yen to multi-month highs against its major peers.
Against the dollar, the yen was last steady at 144.30 , after having surged over 2% in the previous session and striking a four-month high of 141.60.
The yen had, as recently as a month ago, fallen to a one-year low of 151.92 per dollar, coming under pressure as a result of growing interest rate differentials with the United States.
That kept traders on edge over potential intervention from Japanese authorities to prop up the currency as it had done last year.
The Japanese currency similarly stood near Thursday's four-month peak on the euro, and was last at 155.67 per euro.
The Aussie meanwhile last bought 95 yen , retracing some of its losses from the previous session where it fell nearly 2%.
Attention now turns to the BOJ's upcoming two-day monetary policy meeting on Dec. 18.
In the broader market, the dollar largely drifted sideways, with currency moves outside of the yen subdued ahead of Friday's U.S. jobs data.
The euro steadied at $1.0792 though was eyeing a weekly decline of more than 0.8%, while sterling last bought $1.2589 and was similarly headed for a weekly fall of nearly 1%.
The U.S. dollar index slipped 0.05% to 103.63, though was on track to gain 0.4% for the week. That would snap three straight weeks of declines, as the greenback attempts to stem losses from its heavy selloff in November.
Elsewhere, the Australian dollar slipped 0.05% to $0.6599.
Source : Reuters
