By: Hillel Fuld

The USD held steady versus the JPY on Thursday above a 15-year low hit last week, drawing some support from a media report that the Bank of Japan has begun to consider additional monetary easing steps.

The most likely option under consideration is expanding the BOJ's fund-supply tool put in place in December, Japan's Sankei newspaper said, without quoting any sources.

The central bank may either grow the the fund supply amount to 30 trillion JPY ($352 billion) from the current 20 trillion, or extend the duration of cheap, fixed-rate loans to banks to 6 months from the present 3 months, the paper said.

The report weighed on the Japanese currency somewhat but the overall response was limited as investors remained skeptical until they see exactly what the authorities react.

"If the BOJ announces only what the report is saying, it is likely to disappoint the market. And there is a possibility that the yen may even appreciate further," said Yuji Saito, director at Credit Agricole's foreign exchange department.

The USD was little changed from late U.S. trading on Wednesday at 85.48 JPY up from the day's low of 85.34 yen and staying above a 15-year low of 84.72 yen hit on trading platform EBS last week.

"Such steps by the BOJ may help spur dollar short-covering against the yen. But it would be difficult to change the yen's firm trend," said Tomohiro Nishida, treasury department manager at Chuo Mitsui Trust and Banking.

The EUR dipped 0.3 percent to 109.50 yen EURJPY=R, edging back towards a seven week low of 109.07 yen hit on EBS earlier this week.