Dollar edges down in Asia

The dollar edged down in Asia Friday, extending losses in New York that were driven by dovish comments from the head of the US Federal Reserve that indicated interest rates will not go up until next year. In afternoon Tokyo trade, the dollar bought 101.84 yen, down from 101.94 yen in New York on Thursday. The euro firmed to $1.3623 from $1.3606 and to 138.75 yen from 138.70 yen. The dollar began sliding after the Fed on Wednesday said it would further cut its stimulus programme while keeping rates at record lows, and made no mention that it would bring forward plans to tighten monetary policy. Fed chief Janet Yellen said the economy was growing steadily and dismissed a fresh uptick in inflation as ‘noise’ reflecting some short-term distortions. This suggests that the Fed still sees a low-inflation environment for the next year or more. Junya Tanase, chief foreign exchange strategist at JP Morgan, told Dow Jones Newswires that it was tough to see how the dollar-yen rate will ‘break outside the current range to show a clear trend, at least for near term,’ according to AFP.