Forex news and economic data headlines 21 September 2016

  • The real danger for USDJPY may be yet to come

  • ECB's Nouy is confident that NPL measures will be successful

  • How do we sum up the USDJPY moves today?

  • OECD lowers global GDP forecasts

  • How do we sum up the BOJ news today?

  • BOE Agents Survey: Business sentiment improved slightly in August

  • August 2016 UK PSNB 10.1bn vs 10.300bn exp

  • Japan's Ishihara says Abenomics will be accelerated in conjunction with BOJ

  • Kuroda says the BOJ now expects to hit CPI target during FY 2017

  • More from Kuroda (2): Would have achieved 2% price target without impact from oil, sales tax and EM slowdown

  • More from Kuroda: Overshoot commitment is intended to lead to increase in inflation expectations

  • BOJ's Kuroda says Japanese economy no longer in deflation

  • Japan machine tool orders August yy final -8.4% as prev

  • ECB's Praet says French economic performance is "astonishingly weak"

  • Another BOJ recap - "The BOJ has gone two, three steps ahead of expectations"

  • WSJ on the new policy measures from the Bank of Japan

  • Yen surges as BOJ leaves rates unchanged

  • BOJ announcement: To abandon monetary base target

Well, we waited and waited and now one big central bank meeting is slowly fading into the rearview mirror. What looked like big fireworks from the early headlines soon turned out to be bottle rockets as the news was digested. The BOJ are trying to change the game slightly but within the same parameters as before. There was no additional action per se, just promises to control yields and do more of the same. They'll be changing some language and slapping targets on different trees. In the end, the market came to the conclusion that what they are doing may work but also that it may not, and nothing was game changing.

So, USDJPY went on a merry ride. No move on actual rates or QE overall saw a quick drop lower to 101.03 before the market saw all the other details, and then it bought first and asked questions second. Off to the highs at 102.75 we went. That 176 pip move proved to be the stretching point and as the details were chewed over, and it was realised that most of the implications are potentially for much further out than immediately, we came all the way back down to where we started before the announcement. As we head towards the Fed, we've found some equilibrium just under the per-BOPJ levels and sit around 101.40/50. The yen crosses went hand in hand on the same types of moves.

The Nikkei saw the continuation of the BOJ path in good light and it finished up just under 2% at 16807.

The reaction in the other majors was quite muted. We've had a 60 pip range in GBPUSD between 1.3006 and 1.2946 and only a 36 pip range in EURUSD. The fact that they weren't pulled around by the yen crosses more leads me to think that they are sitting waiting for the FOMC.

The antipodean pairs look to be the only real winners today and AUDUSD came off a 0.7535 low to test 0.7600 not too long ago. 0.7602 is the high so far, with the price knocking around 0.7594 as I type.

The clock is now ticking to the FOMC so we're likely to see more sideways action that anything else. However, be prepared for some action as US traders come to town and pass their judgement on the BOJ before things settle. Unless you have a trade in mind for the Fed later, it might be wise not to get elbow deep in trades based on intraday levels as if the market dies, you could be left sitting in something that's flat lining all day.