U.S. dollar drops against yen on BOJ Governor's comments

The U.S. dollar fell against the Japanese yen on Thursday after Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda dismissed the idea of stimulating the Japanese economy with "helicopter money."

In an interview released Thursday by a British media, Kuroda said there was no need to inject money directly to business and consumers. His words lowered market expectation for more stimulus measures from BOJ' s next policy meeting on July 29.

The Japanese currency rose more than 1 percent in wake of Kuroda' s comments on Thursday. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.23 percent at 96.980 in late trading.

On the economic front, the U.S. Labor Department announced Thursday that in the week ending July 16, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims was 253,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week' s unrevised level.

In late New York trading, the euro climbed to 1.1017 dollars from 1.1005 dollars of the previous session, and the British pound gained to 1.3203 dollars from 1.3148 dollars. The Australian dollar went up to 0.7489 dollars from 0.7475 dollars.

The dollar bought 105.90 Japanese yen, lower than 106.86 yen of the previous session. The dollar slipped to 0.9865 Swiss francs from 0.9875 Swiss francs, and it inched up to 1.3081 Canadian dollars from 1.3062 Canadian dollars. Enditem