Yen struggles against resurgent dollar and US Treasury yields

The yen struggled to break away from a 34-year low on Friday and was headed for a weekly decline, while the dollar hovered near a five-month high alongside US Treasury yields as traders heavily scaled back bets for a slew of US rate cuts this year.

The euro was eyeing its sharpest weekly fall in about four months, pressured in part by a resurgent greenback and expectations the European Central Bank (ECB) could begin easing rates in June, likely ahead of the Federal Reserve, reports Reuters.

The yen was last marginally higher at 153.22 per dollar, languishing near a 34-year trough of 153.32 per dollar hit in the previous session on the back of a surge in U.S. Treasury yields, which the dollar/yen pair tends to closely track.

The Japanese currency was eyeing a weekly decline of more than 1 per cent and has slumped some 8 per cent since the start of the year.

While the 152 yen level initially proved a strong resistance for the dollar due to fear of an intervention from Japanese authorities, a hot inflation reading out of the United States on Wednesday spurred a broad rally in the greenback, which eventually broke past the key threshold.

"The break of 152 wasn't really a break, it was more like a blast," Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG. "It's been pretty impressive."

"They have to support the yen, it's in freefall. So there has to be some measures soon. The question is at what level and at what time do they decide to put some money down," he said, referring to an intervention from Tokyo to shore up the currency.

Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Friday authorities were analysing not just recent yen levels but factors that are driving the currency's moves, adding to the slew of jawboning from authorities in recent weeks in a bid to stem the yen's decline.

Elsewhere, sterling eased 0.11 per cent to $1.25405 while the euro last bought $1.0713, both pushing some distance away from multi-month lows hit in the previous session.

The single currency was headed for a weekly loss of more than 1.0 per cent after the ECB on Thursday held interest rates at a record high, as expected, but signalled it could start lowering them as soon as June.

"I think the ECB now are going to be the front runners in terms of rate cuts," said IG's Sycamore.

A June cut from the ECB would likely come ahead of the Fed, which is now only widely expected to begin easing rates by September, after a stronger-than-expected reading on U.S. consumer prices sent prospects for a first Fed cut before the end of summer down the drain.