Yen near 15-year-high vs. USD

Japan's Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said the ministry was conducting simulations on forex intervention, though the Japanese currency hardly budged as the perception remains that Tokyo is unlikely to intervene until the U.S. currency falls near 80 yen.

Noda's comments were also undermined as Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said he did not talk about currencies and monetary policy at a government meeting.

“Comments from Japanese authorities indicated they are not in a hurry to intervene, so new (dollar) lows should be tested,” Roberto Mialich, currency strategist at UniCredit in Milan, said. The dollar fell 0.2 percent to 83.71 yen on Thursday to near a 15-year-low of 83.34 yen hit on trading platform EBS on Wednesday, and is down 9.9 percent against the Japanese currency this year which is buoyant on the back of global growth concerns.

The euro eased 0.2 percent to 106.45 yen, hovering near a nine-year low.

The single currency pared losses against the dollar to trade flat at US$1.2717, helped by comments from European Central Bank Governing Council member Yves Mersch that the euro zone was on the brink of a sustainable recovery.

In Asian trade, the Singaporean currency traded briefly at a new peak of 1.3407 to the greenback, compared with 1.3444 late Wednesday. It later eased to 1.3425.

The dollar slipped against other Asian currencies.

It fell to 30.83 Thai baht from 31.06 Wednesday, to 1,169.80 South Korean won from 1,172.80 and to 8,970.00 Indonesian rupiah from 9,002.50.

The greenback also fell to 44.08 Philippine pesos from 44.40 and to NT$31.90 from NT$31.97.

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