US dollar rises against yen on upbeat economic data

The U.S. dollar gained against yen Thursday as U.S. consumer spending rebounded in May and jobless claims of last week dropped, and comments from Fed officials decrease the fears of an earlier-than-expected tapering. In the week ending June 22, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 346,000, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 355,000, the U.S. Labor Department said on Thursday. Separately, U.S. personal income increased 0.5 percent in May following a 0.1 percent rise in April, while personal consumption expenditures rose 0.3 percent in May, reversing a 0.3 percent decline in April. The increase in consumer spending was the biggest since September 2009, according to the Commerce Department. Comments from Fed policymakers comforted the market the stimulus program will be continued for quite a long time. New York Fed President William Dudley said Thursday that the rise in short term rates was "likely to be a long way off", adding that the Federal Open Market Committee could wait to hike rates even after jobless rate hits 6.5 percent. Fed Board Governor Jerome Powell noted that market adjustments since May have been larger than would be justified by any reasonable reassessment of the path of policy, when commenting market reaction on Fed tapering of stimulus efforts. In late New York trading, the euro gained to 1.3048 dollars from 1.3004 dollars of the previous session and the British pound decreased to 1.5261 dollars from 1.5312 dollars. The Australian dollar climbed to 0.9278 dollars from 0.9263 dollars. The dollar bought 98.39 Japanese yen, higher than 97.87 yen of the previous session. It edged up to 0.9447 Swiss francs from 0. 9435 Swiss francs and moved down to 1.0480 Canadian dollars from 1. 0487 Canadian dollars.