The U.S. dollar continued to climb against the yen on Tuesday in New York, topping the 151 line, a level last seen a year ago, while the euro stayed in the 160-yen range, a 15-year high.
The plunges in the yen's value show that the Bank of Japan's announcement of a tweak to its yield cap policy had a limited impact on investors' drive to sell the yen against other major currencies.
The dollar briefly reached 151.74 yen in New York. In October last year, Japanese authorities conducted a yen-buying, dollar-selling market intervention after the U.S. currency hit 151.94 yen, a then 32-year high.
At 5 p.m. Tuesday in New York, the dollar was quoted at 151.69-79 yen, compared with 150.28-30 yen at 5 p.m. Tuesday in Tokyo. The euro was traded at 160.34-44 yen against 159.60-64 yen late Tuesday in Tokyo.
The yen's depreciation against the dollar and other major currencies helps Japanese exporters in sales overseas while making various imports more expensive and potentially raising some domestic prices.
The Japanese central bank further eased its grip on long-term yields on Tuesday, redefining the ceiling of 1.0 percent as "the upper bound." It set the level as the allowable limit in July.
The BOJ is maintaining ultralow interest rates to prop up the sagging Japanese economy through monetary easing, a sharp contrast with the U.S. Federal Reserve, which has been keeping the key rates at high levels to curb stubborn inflation.
