United Kingdom BRC Retail Sales Monitor - All (YoY) came in at 1.2%, above expectations (1%) in July

Valeria Bednarik, chief analyst at FXStreet explained that USD/JPY advanced during the past Asian session, with the Japanese yen easing on a strong advance in the Nikkei 225, and worse-than-expected local consumer confidence in July, down to 40.3 from the previous 41.7.