Data
from Japan today showed all three of the major CPI rates remained
much higher than the Bank of Japan 2% target. The 15th straight month that the inflation rate is above the Bank of Japan’s 2% target. I sound like a broken
record on this, but the Bank of Japan insists that current high (for
Japan) CPI rates are transitory and expect them to fall from around
October. What this means is that expectations for any policy move
from the Bank at its meeting next week, on the 27th
and 28th,
are very low indeed.
USD/JPY
dribbled a little lower on the CPI data initially but has since
reversed to be tracking for circa 139.80 /140.30 range as I post.
There
was no other data, nor news, of note during the session.
The
People’s Bank of China once again set the USD/CNY reference rate
much lower than was expected. Today though traders were not caught as
long USD against the yuan as they were on Thursday and the range for
USD/CNY and USD/CNH is a lot more subdued than Thursday’s.
Asian
equity markets:
-
Japan’s
Nikkei 225 -0.2% -
China’s
Shanghai Composite +0.4% -
Hong
Kong’s Hang Seng +1% -
South
Korea’s KOSPI -0.15% -
Australia’s
S&P/ASX 200 -0.3%