SINGAPORE—The yen was heading on Friday to its first weekly gain in more than a month after Japanese authorities intervened in markets to support the yen for the first time since 1998, while a towering dollar kept other currencies pinned near multi-year lows.
The yen was up about 0.1 percent at 142.22 per dollar in Asia, after a more than 1 percent rally in the previous session on news that Japan had bought yen to defend the battered currency, although trading was thin on Friday with the country’s markets closed for a public holiday.
The intervention, conducted late in Asia trading hours on Thursday, came after the Bank of Japan stuck with its ultra-low rate policy, which prompted a drop in the yen past 145 per dollar to a 24-year low….