Dollar retreats

LONDON: The dollar fell to its lowest level against the Japanese yen since early March on Friday on reports of more turmoil in the Trump administration, while other markets were quiet as investors remained cautious.

Concerns that U.S. trade tariffs could hurt the global economy and personnel changes at the heart of the U.S. administration have rattled markets in recent days, pushing the dollar on to the back foot and leaving the yen as the main beneficiary.

Commerzbank said the yen was also boosted by domestic factors, paricularly confusion about when and how the Bank of Japan could start to ease record levels of monetary stimulus. Analysts at the bank said the BoJ was "sounding indefinably hawkish."

"Hardly surprising that in that case the smallest cause (such as news from Washington) is enough to cause dollar-yen weakness," they said in a note.

The yen, which has strengthened from around 113 yen per dollar at the start of the year, rose 0.6 percent to 105.645, its highest since March 6. The Japanese currency tends to perform well in times of market uncertainty, and also advanced against other currencies - the euro was down 0.50 percent at 130.24 yen.