The Japanese yen kept its winning streak against the US dollar alive on Thursday and booked a fresh three-month high as the greenback sustained its weakness on new batch of economic data.
The US government reported an unexpected fall on retail sales as it slipped 0.3% in January, missing analysts’ forecast of 0.2% advancement, which erased the solid gain notched last December.
The recent economic data put the struggling greenback under pressure as the US dollar index extended its losing streak to four days after sliding 0.25% at 89.161.
Earlier this week, investors drove the buck in the negative territory after the release of US inflation, which rose 0.5% in January, amid concerns that the latest CPI reading might affect the next move of the Federal Reserve.
The yen recorded 0.60% gain yesterday at 108.63, its best settlement against the greenback since December last year. So far, the yen has outperformed its rival by 5.5% this week after touching its two-year high on Wednesday at 107.13 and its five-month high at 107.82.
Throwing major support to the Japanese yen was the possibility of Haruhiko Kuroda’s another tour of duty for the Bank of Japan. Analysts and investors were expecting that Kuroda could serve for another five-year term after his successful efforts in raising the country’s inflation.
Investors now look forward to Friday’s housing and consumer confidence figures as they search for numbers that could lift the US dollar.