U.S. dollar falls against yen after Fed minutes

The U.S. dollar decreased against the Japanese yen to the lowest level in 17 months on Thursday in the wake of the latest Federal Reserve minutes.

According to the minutes from the Fed's March monetary policy meeting released on Wednesday, "many participants expressed a view that the global economic and financial situation still posed appreciable downside risks."

The minutes said that policymakers signaled at the meeting that they expected the central bank to raise rates twice this year but the timing of hikes were still uncertain. A great number of Fed members stressed that the bank should proceed cautiously in raising rates.

"Many participants indicated that the heightened global risks and the asymmetric ability of monetary policy to respond to them warranted caution," the minutes stated.

The dovish remarks of central bank officials drove the dollar to a 17-month low of 107.67 against the yen on Thursday. The greenback slipped nearly 1.5 percent against the yen during the session, its biggest daily percentage drop in two months.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1379 dollars from 1.1405 dollars of the previous session, and the British pound fell to 1.4061 dollars from 1.4123 dollars. The Australian dollar went down to 0.7505 dollars from 0.7592 dollars.

The dollar bought 108.27 Japanese yen, lower than 109.60 yen of the previous session. The dollar slipped to 0.9555 Swiss francs from 0.9559 Swiss francs, and it inched up to 1.3151 Canadian dollars from 1.3112 Canadian dollars. Enditem