Japanese yen drifts away from two-week maximum

On Friday, the Japanese yen drifted away from a two-week maximum versus the evergreen buck after North Korea told that it was still open for negotiations with the United States.

Although safe assets such as the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc rallied on Thursday in response to rising political tension after US President Trump told that his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-no, initially scheduled for June 12, might not take place.

The US leader accused North Korea of canceling the negotiations and told about Pyongyang's open hostility. He also warned that the US military was ready to respond in case of any reckless actions by North Korea.

However, after North Korea stated that it was open for talks during the early Asian trading session, the risk of worsening sentiment dived a bit.

The Japanese yen slumped at the beginning of Asia trade after peaceful comments by North Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Ki Gwan.

Also, the weakening of the Japanese yen, to some extent, was caused by weaker than anticipated inflation data in the Tokyo region.

As the Japanese government informed, inflation in the Tokyo region, excluding the price of fresh food, also known as basic inflation, tacked on by 0.5% in May, compared with 0.6% per annum in April.

Now the figure is at the lowest value since September last year, questioning the probability that inflation will ever be able to hit the Bank's 2% annual objective.

Excluding prices for fresh food and energy, inflation in the capital went up by only 0.2% during the year, again below the 0.3% level demonstrated a month earlier.

Besides this, initial inflation, including all positions, tacked on by 0.4% compared to the previous year, which is below the 0.5% reading published in April.