Investing.com - The U.S. dollar was higher against the yen on Friday, after the Bank of Japan said its stimulus program could continue for longer than the two years intially anticipated, while globally positive U.S. data on Thursday continued to support the greenback.
USD/JPY hit 102.61 during late Asian trade, the pair's highest since February 18; the pair subsequently consolidated at 102.52, rising 0.24%.
The pair was likely to find support at 101.79, the low of February 18 and resistance at 103.36, the high of January 29.
In the minutes of its January policy meeting, the BoJ said that in order to avoid any misunderstanding about its monetary easing program, the bank needed "to provide a clear explanation that it did not strictly set this to end in two years."
In April last year, the BoJ had announced a policy overhaul that aimed to double the money supply and achieve 2% inflation within about two years.
Meanwhile, the dollar remained supported after the Department of Labor on Thursday said the number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell by 3,000 to 336,000, slightly below expectations for a decline of 4,000.
The Labor Department also said U.S. consumer prices rose 1.6% on a year-over-year basis in January, in line with forecasts. Consumer prices were 0.1% higher from a month earlier, also matching forecasts.
The yen was also lower against the euro, with EUR/JPY adding 0.17% to 140.55.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release private sector data on existing homes sales.