After falling to a nearly 18-month low against the yen earlier in the week, the dollar's Friday gain snapped a five- day losing streak.
The U.S. currency advanced to as high as Yen108.99 to the dollar early in morning trade before falling back to Yen108.27 late Friday in New York, compared with Yen108.24 late Thursday in New York.
The greenback’s comeback may have resulted from remarks made by Japanese officials last week who suggested that the government could intervene by selling yen on the open market should that be needed. Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso pointed to the yen's moves as being "one sided," and implied that the government would take action against excessive currency moves if necessary.
However, most analysts believe that a direct intervention by the Bank of Japan and Ministry of Finance is unlikely and that officials were just trying to talk the yen lower.
According to Steve Englander, global head of G-10 currency strategy at Citigroup, "It's the first time in a while they've come up with this insinuation that they might do intervention so it's having a decent effect. But the more they do the verbal thing without following up the less effect it's going to have."
Euro, Canadian Dollar Up
In other trading, the euro edged higher to $1.1401 late Friday in New York, finishing the week little-changed from where it started. The British pound strengthened to $ 1.4113, compared with $1.4058 Thursday.
A spike in oil prices and a wave of strong economic data helped push the Canadian dollar past a key technical level of C$1.30 to the greenback.