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.

Japan inflation june 2023

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%