The Koyal Group

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Investing.com - The dollar ended the week close to seven-week lows against the yen on Friday amid ongoing speculation over when the Federal Reserve will start to pull back its bond purchasing program.

USD/JPY fell to session lows of 96.13 on Friday, before settling at 96.24, 0.47% lower for the day and 2.03% lower for the week. The dollar fell to 95.79, the lowest since June 19 on Thursday.

The pair is likely to find support at 94.82, the low of June 19 and resistance at 97.80, the high of August 7.

The greenback has weakened against yen since the latest U.S. jobs report for July showed that the economy added fewer jobs than expected. The soft data saw investors reassess expectations on when U.S. central bank would start to taper its USD85 billion-a-month bond buying program.

Comments by senior Fed officials, including the heads of the Federal Reserve Banks of Chicago and Dallas, indicated that the U.S. central bank could begin to scale back its asset purchase program as early as next month if the economy continues to pick up.

The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy unchanged after its policy meeting on Thursday, in a widely expected decision.

Japan's economy was 'starting to recover moderately', the BoJ said in its statement, maintaining language from the previous month.

The central bank added that consumer prices have begun to move higher, saying that "inflation expectations appear to be rising on the whole."

In the week ahead, investors will be looking ahead to U.S. data on retail sales and consumer inflation, as well as reports from the housing and manufacturing sectors. Second quarter growth data from Japan will also be closely watched.

Ahead of the coming week, Investing.com has compiled a list of these and other significant events likely to affect the markets.

Monday, August 12

Japan is to release preliminary data on second quarter gross domestic product, the broadest indicator of economic activity and the leading measure of the economy's health.

Tuesday, August 13

Japan is to release data on core machinery orders. The BoJ is to publish its monetary policy meeting minutes, which contaipan valuable insights into economic conditions from the bank's perspective.

The U.S. is to publish government data on retail sales, the government measure of consumer spending, which accounts for the majority of overall economic activity, as well as data on import prices and business inventories.

Wednesday, August 14

The U.S. is to release official data on producer price inflation.

Thursday, August 15

The U.S. is to release a series of economic data, with reports on consumer inflation, jobless claims, industrial production and manufacturing data from the Empire state and the Philly Fed.

Friday, August 16

The U.S. is to round up the week with data on building permits, a leading indicator of future construction sector activity, as well as data on housing starts. The University of Michigan is to release its closely watched preliminary data on consumer sentiment.