Dollar falls against yen

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TOKYO/SYDNEY: The dollar fell versus the yen on Monday, dragged lower by sliding Tokyo stocks and data showing Japan logged a much larger-than-expected trade surplus in April.

The greenback was down 0.5 percent at 109.720 yen, pulling back from a three-week high of 110.59 scaled on Friday.

Data on Monday showed Japan´s trade balance in April was 823.5 billion yen ($7.50 billion), against economists´ forecasts for a 492.8 billion yen increase.

Japan logged a trade surplus for the third consecutive month.

If a country´s exports exceed its imports, as in Japan´s recent case, there is in theory a high demand for its goods and therefore for its currency.

"The April trade surplus was due in large part to weak imports.

Still, the data was enough to trigger yen buying," said Masashi Murata, senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman in Tokyo.

"The trade numbers came out against a political backdrop that does not favour Japan intervening to weaken the yen, thus making it relatively easy for participants to buy back the yen.