The Japanese yen continues to make inroads against the US dollar. In the North American session, USD/JPY is up 1.1% on Wednesday, trading at 144.60. Earlier, the yen strengthened to 143.98, its strongest level since Sept. 2024.
BoJ’s Ueda: BoJ could pause in response to US tariffs
Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Wednesday that the central bank will have to determine the impact of US trade policy on growth and inflation in Japan. Ueda said that US tariffs had created new uncertainty and signaled that the BoJ might hold off on further interest rates until the situation became more clear.
Ueda repeated that the BoJ would raise rates if the economy continued to improve, and currently, underlying inflation was rising and moving closer to 2% target. The uptake is that the BoJ is being very cautious with all the turmoil in the markets and is dampening expectations of a rate hike at the May 1 meeting.
FOMC minutes – still relevant?
The Federal Reserve will post its minutes of the March rate meeting. Investors scrutinize the minutes for policy clarity but global economic developments are unfolding so quickly that it’s questionable if the minutes will be relevant with the massive market sell-off and the trade war between the US and China.
Earlier today, the US lifted tariffs on China to an astounding 104% and China has retaliated with an 84% counter-tariff. The turmoil in the financial markets has nervous investors looking for safer shores, and are parking their funds in safe-haven assets like the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc. In April, the yen has jumped 3.3% against the US dollar, while the Swiss franc has soared 5% against the greenback.
USD/JPY Technical
- USD/JPY has pushed below support at 145.46 and is putting pressure on support at 144.64
- There is resistance at 146.79 and 147.61
