Over the weekend, Japan prime minister Takaichi spoke about the yen currency’s weakness in saying that it has been beneficial for exporters. It’s not the kind of bias you would want to hear from her especially in such a sensitive time. For one, it comes off as tone deaf amid households grappling with higher living costs. Secondly, it runs against the kind of pushback that the ministry of finance has been dishing out since the past two weeks.
Naturally, Takaichi tried to walk back her comments in saying that she “does not favour either a weak or strong currency”. But in a time like this, the damage has already been done and all it does is just feeds the beast.
USD/JPY is now up just 0.1% on the day to around 154.90 but the high earlier touched 155.51. A firmer dollar amid all the volatile selling in precious metals is also helping to underpin the mood, with the currency pair now well off the lows last week near the 152.00 level. The latest rebound though is stalling a little now at the 200-hour moving average (blue line):
So, that’s a key line in the sand to watch out for. A break above that will see the near-term bias switch to being more bullish once again. And if that were to be the case, expect Tokyo officials to step in with stronger conviction soon enough to quell further speculative moves.
For now, USD/JPY is also already trading back above its 100-day moving average of 153.86. So, that’s another point in the win column for dip buyers after Tokyo authorities broke that hold last week after another suspected ‘rate check’.
But now that we’re seeing the fading impact of the ‘rate check’ moves, is it time for actual intervention to come in? I wouldn’t be surprised. The writing has already been on the wall since early last week already: As good a time as any for Japan to intervene?
That being said, just be reminded that actual intervention may not have a lasting impact unless we see a material shift in fundamental drivers for the Japanese yen. And so far, it doesn’t quite seem like anything is changing – not at least in the short-term.
This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.