Dollar headed for monthly loss; yen steady ahead of BOJ decision

The U.S. dollar was on track for a second straight monthly loss on Friday on mounting expectations the Federal Reserve could soon end its aggressive rate-hike cycle, while the yen steadied near a one-week high ahead of a pivotal central bank decision.

The Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) monetary policy decision on Friday takes centre stage in Asia, where expectations are for new BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda to keep monetary settings ultra-loose at his debut policy meeting.

Focus will also be on Ueda’s tone, with investors closely looking out for any tweak in forward guidance.

Ahead of the decision, the Japanese yen was roughly 0.1% higher at 133.84 per U.S. dollar, and similarly gained more than 0.1% against the British pound.

“I don’t expect the BOJ to change its monetary policy this tme, but the newly-released Tokyo CPI was higher than expected … I think this puts pressure on the BOJ, they might do something in the near future,” said Tina Teng, market analyst at CMC Markets.

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