By Lisa Twaronite, MarketWatch
TOKYO (MarketWatch) - The dollar spiked against its Japanese counterpart in late Asian trading Thursday, after Japan's newly appointed top finance official used his inaugural news conference to talk down the yen.
Finance Minister Naoto Kan said that many Japanese companies favor the dollar trading around 95 yen and that he will work with the Bank of Japan to get the currency to "appropriate" levels. Read more on Japanese Finance Minister Naoto Kan.
"Kan's first official briefing as finance minister set the tone for the market and highlighted the deep contrast between [him and] the previous minister," Hirohisa Fujii, wrote analysts at Action Economics.
The dollar spiked to 92.85 yen from 92.15 yen before Kan spoke. It was last trading at 92.73, up from 92.31 in late North American trading on Wednesday.
The dollar index (DXY 77.73, +0.24, +0.31%) , which measures the U.S. unit against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, rose to 77.721 from 77.479 late Wednesday. (DXY 77.73, +0.24, +0.31%)
The euro recently changed hands at $1.4365, down from $1.4394 late Wednesday, and the British pound bought $1.5924, down from $1.6003.
Earlier in the Asian session, the Australian currency grabbed the spotlight. Much stronger-than-expected November retail sales in Australia and a narrowing of the trade deficit sent the Aussie climbing earlier, as more interest-rate hikes from the Reserve Bank of Australia became more likely. See full story on Australian retail sales, trade data.
The Aussie dollar later reversed and was trading at 91.93 U.S. cents, down 0.2%, after rising to a five-week high of 92.68 cents after the data were released.
