eileen lee at the tokyo stock exchange. >>> the bank of japans massive monetary easing has significantly raised the volume of money on the market. but loans to businesses and individuals have not increased as the central bank had hoped. boj officials said on tuesday that the monetary base stood at more than $1.7 trillion at the end of june. hitting a record high for four months in a row. the monetary base totals the amount of currency in circulation, plus current account deposits held by commercial banks at the boj. the amount has increased 18.5% from the end of march, before the bank introduced an unprecedented level of monetary easing. but outstanding loans by financial institutions have been posting slow growth. they were up only around 2% from a year ago. boj policymakers aim to double the monetary base over a two-year period. they hope that supplying a huge amount of funds will help boost lending and revive the economy. >>> the future of fiscal reconstruction in portugal now seems unclear, after two members of the cabinet resigned. deficit in portugal has been trying to rebuild its

for more on japanese markets, let's go to eileen lee at the tokyo stock exchange. elien, good morning. the big news is that the dollar yen is back at the 100 yen level. how are things looking like over there this morning? >> reporter: good morning, ai. first, let's take a quick look at where dollar yen is trading at this moment. the dollar is now at 100.73 to 75 against the yen. compared to the mid 99 level at about the same time on tuesday. and that's the highest we have seen in about a month. the dollar is really boosted by the recent string of strong u.s. economic data we received recently such as manufacturing activity, consumer sentiment and the latest factory artists. all that gives more credit to the view it will taper its monetary program sooner than many analysts expected. market players will watch out for the reports on friday as the employment situation in the u.s. is one of the key factors that policymakers watch. and, in fact, we may get some clues to the u.s. labor markets on the private adp jobs report due later today. and like you said, ai, the doll

eileen lee from the tokyo stock exchange. >>> well, will soon see another country joining the eurozone. european union finance ministers officially approved the baltic state of latvia to become the 18th nation to adopt the euro, starting next january. the ministers gave the green light to latvia at a meeting in brussels. the latvian government said the conversion rate of its currency, the lat, at 0.7028 for one euro. it will be the first time in three years that a new member joins the eurozone. in 2011, latvia's neighbor, eston estonia, started using the euro. >> it will facility economic development. we believe it's good news, not only for latvia. we believe it's good news also for the europe and eurozone. >> latvia joined the eu in 2004. the country's gross domestic product has grown at more than 5% since 2011. >>> delegates from russia are the new faces around the table at the world trade organization. they joined the group less than a year ago. and they're already facing a trade dispute with their counterparts from the eu. eu delegates have criticized the russians for what's called

for that we go to eileen lee at the tokyo stokes. will we have a quiet session with the spotlight on the fed and corporate earnings? >> it seems that way. currently investors selling shares ahead of the conclusion of the meeting and earnings releases. here are the opening levels for wednesday, july 31st. the nikkei is now 1.33% at 13,684 points after rebounding from a four-week low on tuesday, as dollar yen went back to the 98 level. and at the moment, the index is just slightly higher for july. the broader topix is down 0.85%. and earnings reports are in the spotlight in an otherwise quiet session. among companies that released earnings on tuesday, we may want to follow the shares of mitsubishi motors, its operating profit for the april/june quarter rose 7% from the year before due to a weaker yen. but a company is also facing a drop in sales in thailand, which is one of its biggest markets. while the weaker yen is helping to boost earnings of japanese exporters, it's also helping those of some other companies, like all nippon railw