Breaking: Japanese Yen surges on suspected intervention, USD/JPY plunges below 160.00
The Japanese Yen (JPY) is surging across the board in the American session on Thursday, without a clear catalyst. This development hints that Japanese authorities may finally be intervening in foreign exchange markets following days of speculation.
At the time of press, the USD/JPY pair was down 2.4% on the day at 159.50, while EUR/JPY was losing 1.9% at 183.90, and GBP/JPY was falling 1.8% at 214.40.
Japanese Yen Price Today
The table below shows the percentage change of Japanese Yen (JPY) against listed major currencies today. Japanese Yen was the strongest against the US Dollar.
| USD | EUR | GBP | JPY | CAD | AUD | NZD | CHF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USD | -0.58% | -0.56% | -2.38% | -0.30% | -0.94% | -1.38% | -1.13% | |
| EUR | 0.58% | 0.01% | -1.93% | 0.27% | -0.38% | -0.82% | -0.54% | |
| GBP | 0.56% | -0.01% | -1.93% | 0.26% | -0.38% | -0.82% | -0.55% | |
| JPY | 2.38% | 1.93% | 1.93% | 2.26% | 1.61% | 1.14% | 1.44% | |
| CAD | 0.30% | -0.27% | -0.26% | -2.26% | -0.63% | -1.08% | -0.80% | |
| AUD | 0.94% | 0.38% | 0.38% | -1.61% | 0.63% | -0.43% | -0.17% | |
| NZD | 1.38% | 0.82% | 0.82% | -1.14% | 1.08% | 0.43% | 0.31% | |
| CHF | 1.13% | 0.54% | 0.55% | -1.44% | 0.80% | 0.17% | -0.31% |
The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the Japanese Yen from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the US Dollar, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent JPY (base)/USD (quote).
USD/JPY managed to hold comfortably above 163.00 early Thursday even though the US Dollar (USD) was struggling to stay resilient against other major currencies. At the beginning of the American session, the disappointing second-quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data from the US, which showed that the economy expanded at an annual rate of 1.5% to miss the market expectation of 2.1%, further weighed on the USD.
While there is no official confirmation, Japanese authorities might have taken action after seeing how USD/JPY's downside remained limited despite the USD selloff.
In the early Asian session on Friday, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) will announce its monetary policy decisions.
BoJ rate hold seen as done deal as focus shifts to timing of next hike
Analysts at Commerzbank expect the Bank of Japan to "leave its overnight call rate unchanged at its monetary policy meeting early Friday," noting that "the market is pricing this in at 99.3%, and all analysts surveyed by Bloomberg agree." As a result, they argue that "that won’t be the deciding factor" for markets, with "the outlook" for policy and guidance "much more important."
Commerzbank points out that "the market continues to expect that the Bank of Japan will raise interest rates only about every six months - and thus not again until December." However, in their view, "the economic situation could well allow for an earlier move," suggesting that communication around the timing of the next hike may prove more market-relevant than the widely anticipated hold itself.
Japanese Yen FAQs
The Japanese Yen (JPY) is one of the world’s most traded currencies. Its value is broadly determined by the performance of the Japanese economy, but more specifically by the Bank of Japan’s policy, the differential between Japanese and US bond yields, or risk sentiment among traders, among other factors.
One of the Bank of Japan’s mandates is currency control, so its moves are key for the Yen. The BoJ has directly intervened in currency markets sometimes, generally to lower the value of the Yen, although it refrains from doing it often due to political concerns of its main trading partners. The BoJ ultra-loose monetary policy between 2013 and 2024 caused the Yen to depreciate against its main currency peers due to an increasing policy divergence between the Bank of Japan and other main central banks. More recently, the gradually unwinding of this ultra-loose policy has given some support to the Yen.
Over the last decade, the BoJ’s stance of sticking to ultra-loose monetary policy has led to a widening policy divergence with other central banks, particularly with the US Federal Reserve. This supported a widening of the differential between the 10-year US and Japanese bonds, which favored the US Dollar against the Japanese Yen. The BoJ decision in 2024 to gradually abandon the ultra-loose policy, coupled with interest-rate cuts in other major central banks, is narrowing this differential.
The Japanese Yen is often seen as a safe-haven investment. This means that in times of market stress, investors are more likely to put their money in the Japanese currency due to its supposed reliability and stability. Turbulent times are likely to strengthen the Yen’s value against other currencies seen as more risky to invest in.
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