ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: USD/JPY continues its fall - BOJ meeting this week

  • Forex news for Asian trading on Monday, 16 January 2023

The US dollar weakened again here today. EUR, GBP, yen … well, right across the majors board, the US dollar fell away. While there was not really much of a fresh catalyst to point a finger at, positive sentiment on China reopening, the EU and US perhaps avoiding recessions, a slowing in major central bank rate hikes, natural gas prices down and other good news I may have missed persisted.

USD/JPY also has the Bank of Japan factor. The Bank’s first policy meeting for the year begins Tuesday Japan time (the statement will be issued at the conclusion of the meeting on Wednesday) and speculation is rife of further change to come after the December meeting allowed a higher yield ceiling for 10 year JGBs (from +25bp to +50bp ICYMI).

Data from Japan today was a surging PPI (see bullets above).

USD/JPY dropped under 127.50 today, to its lowest since May of 2022.

The People’s Bank of China announced a medium-term lending facility (MLF) today:

  • 779bn yuan amount injected vs. 700 billion yuan maturing today
  • for one-year
  • at a rate of 2.75%, unchanged from the previous MLF

The PBOC set one- and five-year loan prime rates (LPRs) this Friday (the 20th). The unchanged MLF rate is suggestive of no change to current LPR rates will be the result.

Current LPRs are:

  • 3.65% for the one year
  • 4.30% for the five year

Coming up later today we have testimony from Bank of England Governor Bailey and senior officials (see bullets above).

And a US Federal holiday for Martin Luther King Day.

  • US cash equity exchanges are closed
  • The US bond market is also closed
  • CME Globex (futures trade): Equity, Interest Rates, FX, Energy Products all halt at 1800GMT/1300 US ET, and reopen at 2300GMT/1800 US ET.

Asian equity markets:

  • Japan’s Nikkei 225 -1.3%

  • China’s Shanghai Composite +1.4%

  • Hong Kong’s Hang Seng +0.7%

  • South Korea’s KOSPI +0.9%

  • Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 +0.8%

Bitcoin climbed above USD21K.

usdyen chart wrap 16 January 2023

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