05:00 Japan BoJ monthly economic report December

The dollar rose toward a five-year high against the yen as traders bet on a divergence in monetary policy with the U.S. Federal Reserve paring stimulus while the Bank of Japan continues unprecedented easing. The Fed said Dec. 18 it plans to cut monthly bond purchases in January to $75 billion from $85 billion, while reinforcing its assurance that interest rates will remain low for an extended period. Policy makers will probably reduce bond purchases in $10 billion increments over the next seven meetings before ending the program in December 2014, economists said in a Bloomberg poll.

In Japan, the central bank is buying more than 7 trillion yen ($67.1 billion) in government bonds each month in an effort to end 15 years of deflation. BOJ officials see significant scope to boost bond purchases if necessary to achieve their 2 percent inflation target, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The yen fell against all but one of its 16 major counterparts as the Nikkei 225 (NKY) Stock Index topped 16,000 for the first time since 2007 and China conducted operations to ease a cash crunch, cutting demand for Japan’s currency as a haven.

U.S. orders for durable goods probably rebounded in November, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News before today’s Commerce Department data.

Australia’s dollar fell against the greenback for the first time in four days.

EUR / USD: during the Asian session the pair fell to $ 1.3675

GBP / USD: during the Asian session, the pair traded in the range of $ 1.6330-55

USD / JPY: during the Asian session, the pair rose to Y104.40