We had plenty of comments crossing the news wires from both Japan’s finance minister Suzuki and Bank of Japan Governor Ueda during the Tokyo morning but neither of them managed to give much support to the yen. The counter factual is that JPY would have fallen faster without them, but here in the real world the currency slid again regardless. USD/JPY rose to highs above 155.20.

Ueda did say the BOJ won't necessarily wait until inflation achieves their forecasts in 1.5 to 2 years to raise interest rates. This didn't (yet), but likely should, raise a few concerns amongst yen shorts.

The yen wasn’t alone in dropping against the US dollar, though. EUR, GBP, AUD, NZD and the hapless CAD are all lower against the big dollar. There was no fresh news as a catalyst, nor data (the data agenda was blank today), so just a continuation of the strength the dollar showed on Tuesday.

Bank of Japan Governor Ueda is scheduled to speak again today, at 0830 GMT.

USD/JPY update:

usdyen wrap chart 08 May 2024 2