The Japanese yen gained modestly against the U.S. dollar while Japanese government bond futures declined slightly following the release of better-than-expected second-quarter economic growth data. The USD/JPY pair weakened to 147.72, while Japanese government bond futures dropped 11 points to 137.86. The Nikkei index climbed 0.6% to close at 42,906.73 points.
The Japanese government reported on Friday that second-quarter GDP expanded at an annualized rate of 1.0% quarter-over-quarter, significantly surpassing economists' forecasts of 0.4% growth.