The U.S. Dollar briefly rose against the Japanese Yen in the Asian trading session, following the Bank of Japan’s announcement that it would make no changes to its current monetary policy except for some minor tweaking to its asset purchase program. Markets had been expecting that the Japanese central bank would leave monetary policy completely unchanged. As reported at 1:49 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the USD/JPY pair had been trading higher at 79.97 Yen before slipping back more recently to 79.49 Yen.
In the U.S., the Federal Reserve released the minutes from the June meeting which revealed that the majority of the Fed’s voting members remain firmly in wait-and-see mode and that the U.S. central bank will need to see a marked worsening of economic conditions before it will consider any additional easing. The U.S. Dollar Index, a gauge of the greenback’s strength relative to other major currencies, soared to a 2-year high on the news in the late New York market, trading at one point at 83.610 .DXY before retreating to 83.457 in the Asian session. The EUR/USD held steady at $1.2242 after falling from $1.2212, a 2-year low, in overnight trade in New York. Traders believe that the Euro could slip to $1.20 within the next few weeks.