USD/JPY scales eight-month highs on trade optimism

USD/JPY tilted higher in Asian trade to May 23 highs following earlier trade data from Japan and ahead of US inflation data, and America and China reached a trade deal with signing scheduled on Wednesday. 

As of 06:13 GMT, USD/JPY rose 0.13% to 110.09, marking eight-month highs at 110.21, with a session-low at 109.92. 

Earlier Japanese data showed current surplus shrank to 1.437 trillion yen in November, beating estimates of 1.425 trillion. 

Banking lending rose 1.8% y/y, slowing down from 2.1% in November. 

From the US, consumer prices are expected to rise 0.2%, slowing down from 0.3% in November, while expected to rise 2.4% y/y. 

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams was due to speak about the culture in financial services at a workshop hosted by the London School of Economics.

Otherwise, the US Treasury Department took China off its list of currency manipulating- countries after putting it there in August.  

The Department said China has pledged executable commitments to avoid weakening yuan and publish forex information, bolstering yuan versus dollar to six-month highs.