After the BOJ decision earlier today, the pair dribbled lower and fell to a low of 147.20 at the tail end of Asia trading. That was met by buyers who moved to defend a key near-term level on the chart (200-hour moving average) but it was BOJ governor Ueda’s press conference that saw the yen strength faded so far today.
The Japanese central bank voted by a 7-2 majority to keep interest rates unchanged, with board members Takata and Tamura dissenting in favour of a 25 bps rate hike. That sparked some intrigue amid a more hawkish tilt in the voting situation, one that is rarely seen when it comes to the BOJ. However, Ueda was quick to dismiss any material break in the ranks during his presser.
All he mentioned was that Takata and Tamura voted in favour of hiking rates. But the rest of his comments were mainly reaffirming the majority view of the BOJ, adding that they are looking to stay on a more data-dependent approach. USD/JPY recovered in moving from around 147.50-60 to 147.90 levels currently.
The move up is of course also helped by a firmer dollar so far on the session. EUR/USD is down 0.2% to 1.1757 while GBP/USD is down 0.5% to 1.3490 on the day. The greenback is keeping its advance from overnight, as traders continue to digest the post-Fed mood in broader markets.
In the bigger picture though, USD/JPY is still largely meandering between some key levels as pointed out here. Something’s gotta give eventually and only then will we see a move with more trending conviction in the pair.
This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.