Big moves continued for USD/JPY and yen crosses in the Asian morning today. USD/JPY rose above 159.40 before getting slammed down to lows under 157.80. As you’d suspect this was Bank of Japan intervention, this time ‘rate checks’ in EUR/JPY. If you are unfamiliar with what rate checks involve, I wrote a quick explainer here (its just a paragraph):

The swings continued, a surge back up to 159.30 or so, then down toward 158.00 again before recovering to be around 159.25 as I post.

Japanese officials were coy, not confirming the intervention, but there was enough market confirmation about. The moves in Asia from Japan come after the intervention on (US) Thursday following the US CPI data. Japanese authorities leant with the momentum, evidenced by the surge in volumes. EBS volumes in just the few hours after the CPI were reported around 5x higher than average day’s volumes.

There was little else of note during the session. Data from New Zealand was awful, the June manufacturing PMI hit its third lowest value for a non-COVID lockdown month, and recorded 15 months in contraction. The data for retail sales for the same month was also poor.

From China we June trade figures. Imports unexpectedly dropped, exports beat.

US politics featured again. US President Biden spoke after the NATA summit. There are recordings all over the place, of course, so you’ll be able to see and hear the gaffes, mumblings and slurred comments. I’m not being mean to the man, check out the coverage. When he first messed up in the debate a couple of weeks ago US markets responded to the prospect of a Trump Presidency firming in the betting. The impact on financial markets today seemed barely discernible.

usdyen wrap 12 July 2024 2