The U.S. dollar fell sharply to the upper 155 yen range early Thursday in Tokyo after the U.S. Federal Reserve decided to hold interest rates steady, while another suspected yen-buying intervention by Japan also pushed the yen higher.
The U.S. currency briefly sank to 153.00 yen from the upper 157 yen range overnight, in what some believe may have been caused by an additional market intervention by Japanese authorities to halt the yen's decline following an earlier suspected operation on Monday.
At 9 a.m., the dollar fetched 155.69-70 yen compared with 154.55-65 yen in New York and 157.88-90 yen in Tokyo at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
The euro was quoted at $1.0715-0719 and 166.82-89 yen against $1.0708-0718 and 165.44-54 yen in New York and $1.0661-0662 and 168.32-36 yen in Tokyo late Wednesday afternoon.
Tokyo stocks opened slightly lower as technology issues tracked overnight falls by their U.S. counterparts.
In the first 15 minutes of trading, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average fell 195.49 points, or 0.51 percent, from Wednesday to 38,078.56. The broader Topix index was down 6.65 points, or 0.24 percent, at 2,722.75.
On the top-tier Prime Market, decliners were led by oil and coal product, bank and chemical issues.
