The move owes more to the nature of the surprise from the BOJ in tweaking its yield curve control policy, as it was rather unexpected. What should have been a straightforward and quiet run up to the Christmas holiday has now been roiled and broader market sentiment is staring down the barrel of another ugly week potentially.
Against all the major currencies, the yen is up by over 3% currently so that exemplifies how the influence the BOJ policy tweak has had on price action today. The early half of Kuroda's press conference saw USD/JPY recover a bit from 132.80 to 133.60 but the pair has given all of that back and more in a drop to 132.09 at the lows for today just moments ago:
Kuroda might be trying to play down any chances of a BOJ pivot but markets are brushing off his remarks as the yen continues to soar and equities stay under pressure in European trading.
AUD/JPY, which is typically a key risk barometer for markets, is also down by over 3.5% and the plunge today makes for an ugly technical picture:
The pair is off its earlier low of 88.01 but the break back below 90.00 leaves little in the way of a further drop towards the May low, seen at 87.30 next.
