Yen gains after Japanese trade data

The yen gained versus the dollar in Asian session trading on Monday after data showed a much larger-than-expected trade surplus in April, pushing the trade balance to its highest level in just over six years.

USDJPY fell 0.5 percent to 109.720 yen, moving away from a three-week high of 110.59 hit on Friday.

Japan’s trade balance in April was 823.5 billion yen (5.17 billion pounds), against economists’ forecasts for a 492.8 billion yen increase.

The yen’s gains were tempered by the release of a Nikkei-Markit survey showing manufacturing activity contracted in April to its weakest level since December 2012, with the PMI reading falling to 47.6.

Meanwhile, a Group of 7 finance ministers’ meeting concluded on Saturday with the United States warning Japan against intervening to weaken the yen.

In other currencies, the euro was little changed against the dollar. EURUSD traded at $1.1231, staying within distance of a two-month trough of $1.1180 touched on Thursday.

AUDUSD was last at $0.7230, having been as low as $0.7175 last week, a low last seen more than two months ago.

The US dollar remained broadly stronger after being boosted by recent comments from Federal Reserve officials as well as minutes of the Fed’s April meeting have increase odds that a rate hike in June or July is a real possibility.

More Fed officials are due to speak later on Monday including James Bullard, John Williams and Patrick Harker. Last Thursday, New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley said the U.S. economy could be strong enough to warrant an interest rate increase in June or July.

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