BlackRock's comments on the Bank of Japan are in the context of the firm holding a 'high conviction' view on higher Japanese stocks:

  • Japan’s economic revival — and the return of inflation — “makes its equity market one of our strongest convictions,” the BlackRock Investment Institute said in its mid-year outlook.

The firm expect the BoJ not to hike rates next week:

  • BOJ probably needs to wait until price trends are confirmed near the end of 2024 before hiking
  • “We expect an accommodative environment to continue in Japan,”
  • stocks have more room to rise because the BOJ is likely to take a cautious approach to normalizing policy amid an extension of subsidies for power and gas bills for several more months
  • This puts the benchmark Topix index on course to set fresh record highs this year

Info comes via Bloomberg (gated)

Rick Reider is BlackRock's global fixed income CIO & PM, BlackRock is a multi-trillion fund manager