- Declines to respond when asked about talk of ‘rate checks’
- Says watching forex moves with a sense of urgency
The silence and lack of follow through remarks says a lot considering how she would normally like to interject and try and jawbone the USD/JPY currency pair lower. It leans towards the tone of action speaks louder than words. And in the case of any intervention, that is always going to be the case.
In case you missed it, the Japanese yen saw a sharp spike higher earlier just for a brief period. USD/JPY slowly climbed above 159.00 after BOJ governor Ueda offered little hints on any action by the central bank to help boost the currency. Instead, he focused more on saying that they might work with the government to help keep the calm in the bond market.
But after a short climb above 159.00, there was sharp selling which saw the pair drop to 157.33 before keeping close to 158.00 now – down 0.3% on the day.
In the case of any actual intervention, the price action would show a much stronger follow up and more persistent selling i.e. yen buying. So, this doesn’t seem to be the MOF stepping in but perhaps performing their usual ‘rate check’ calls before actually intervening.
That has been the case previously in July 2024 as well in September 2022, where they had these ‘rate checks’ just before performing actual intervention by buying up the yen currency.
This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.