USD/JPY pair rebounds to near 149.30 during the Asian trading hours on Wednesday. However, the global risk-off sentiment and rising bet of more interest-rate hikes from the Bank of Japan (BoJ) might boost the Japanese Yen (JPY) and cap the upside for the pair.
The BOJ is anticipated to raise rates from 0.50% to 0.75% this year, which could influence investor sentiment and support the JPY. Overnight index swaps are fully pricing an increase in borrowing costs by September and pricing in a 50% odd move as soon as June, according to Bloomberg.
Japan's Services Producer Pricing Index (PPI) released on Tuesday, supports the case of the BoJ rate hike. This comes on top of Japan's robust consumer inflation numbers, reaffirming the prospect that the BoJ would raise interest rates further, which continues to support the JPY.
The US Conference Board's Consumer Confidence fell the most since August 2021, declining to 98.3 in February versus 105.3 prior. This, in turn, could weigh on the Greenback against the JPY. Traders will take more cues from the Fedspeak later this week. Any hawkish comments from Federal Reserve (Fed) officials could lift the US Dollar in the near term.
One of the Bank of Japan's mandates is currency control, so its moves are key for the Yen. The BoJ has directly intervened in currency markets sometimes, generally to lower the value of the Yen, although it refrains from doing it often due to political concerns of its main trading partners. The BoJ ultra-loose monetary policy between 2013 and 2024 caused the Yen to depreciate against its main currency peers due to an increasing policy divergence between the Bank of Japan and other main central banks. More recently, the gradually unwinding of this ultra-loose policy has given some support to the Yen.
Over the last decade, the BoJ's stance of sticking to ultra-loose monetary policy has led to a widening policy divergence with other central banks, particularly with the US Federal Reserve. This supported a widening of the differential between the 10-year US and Japanese bonds, which favored the US Dollar against the Japanese Yen. The BoJ decision in 2024 to gradually abandon the ultra-loose policy, coupled with interest-rate cuts in other major central banks, is narrowing this differential.
Source: Fxstreet
The yen fell broadly on Monday following news that Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba had resigned, while the dollar was nursing losses after tumbling on a weak U.S. jobs report that cemented expe...
The Japanese Yen (JPY) maintains its offered tone through the Asian session on Wednesday amid heightened domestic political and trade-related uncertainties. Furthermore, the lack of hawkish signals fr...
The USD/JPY pair trades on a stronger note around 148.50 during the early Asian session on Wednesday. Heightened political uncertainty in Japan weighs on the Japanese Yen (JPY) against the US Dollar (...
The yen strengthened to around 146.8 per dollar on Monday, recovering losses from the previous session as the greenback stayed under pressure from expectations of Federal Reserve rate cuts. Traders ar...
The USD/JPY pair gains ground to around 147.20 during the early Asian session on Monday. The Japanese Yen (JPY) softens against the US Dollar (USD) as cooling inflationary pressures in Japan undermine...
Brent oil prices strengthened on Friday (September 12th), with the last price recorded at $66.54 per barrel. This increase reflects positive sentiment in the energy market amid expectations of an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve, which...
Oil prices held steady on Friday (September 12th) as concerns about oversupply and weakening U.S. demand offset the risk of supply disruptions stemming from conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine. Brent crude futures rose 11 cents, or 0.2%, to...
Gold (XAU/USD) trims a part of its intraday gains, though it sticks to positive bias through the first half of the European session on Friday and remains close to the record high touched earlier this week. Softer labor market data overshadowed a...
The Federal Reserve is likely to start a series of interest-rate cuts next week and keep going through the end of the year, traders bet on Wednesday...
The International Monetary Fund on Thursday said the Federal Reserve has scope to lower interest rates because of the weakening U.S. labor market,...
Producer inflation in the United States, as measured by the change in the Producer Price Index (PPI), fell to 2.6% annually in August from 3.3% in...
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Tuesday that the preliminary estimate of the Current Employment Statistics (CES) national benchmark...