The yen has weakened in most recent sessions as investors pared long positions and Japanese officials explicitly warned about currency intervention.

Also undermining the yen, a prominent academic with close ties to BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Thursday that the Bank of Japan is likely to expand monetary stimulus either in June or July with an eye on first-quarter gross domestic product data and the outcome of this month's G7 summit.

Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, who has been less cautious about future rate increases than many of her colleagues, said that inflation measures have moved higher. She said any uncertainty in the Fed's economic forecasting should not stop the central bank from taking monetary policy decisions.

Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren, a voting member this year on the Fed's rate-setting committee, said the central bank should raise rates again if second-quarter data confirms that the U.S. labor market is near full strength and inflation is on track to accelerate.

Later on Friday, investors await a fresh set of U.S. economic readings, including retail sales data and the April producer price index.

EUR/USD: during the Asian session the pair traded in the range of $1.1365-80

GBP/USD: during the Asian session the pair traded in the range of $1.4420-50

USD/JPY: during the Asian session the pair fell to Y108.70

Based on Reuters materials