Japanese Yen gives back half of early gains against USD ahead of US PPI data

The Japanese Yen gives up half of its early gains against the US Dollar as the former struggles to hold gains.
Soft Tokyo CPI and the nomination of two new BoJ board members are capping the Yen.
Investors await the US PPI data for fresh cues on the Fed’s monetary policy outlook.

Sagar Dua FXStreet

The Japanese Yen (JPY) surrenders half of its early gains against the US Dollar (USD) during the European trading session on Friday. The USD/JPY pair rebounds to near 155.90 as the JPY falls back, but is still 0.15% down.

Japanese Yen Price Today

The table below shows the percentage change of Japanese Yen (JPY) against listed major currencies today. Japanese Yen was the weakest against the Swiss Franc.

	USD	EUR	GBP	JPY	CAD	AUD	NZD	CHF
USD		0.00%	0.13%	-0.11%	-0.06%	0.04%	0.05%	-0.20%
EUR	-0.00%		0.12%	-0.13%	-0.05%	0.04%	0.05%	-0.20%
GBP	-0.13%	-0.12%		-0.27%	-0.18%	-0.08%	-0.07%	-0.32%
JPY	0.11%	0.13%	0.27%		0.09%	0.18%	0.18%	-0.07%
CAD	0.06%	0.05%	0.18%	-0.09%		0.09%	0.09%	-0.14%
AUD	-0.04%	-0.04%	0.08%	-0.18%	-0.09%		0.01%	-0.24%
NZD	-0.05%	-0.05%	0.07%	-0.18%	-0.09%	-0.01%		-0.26%
CHF	0.20%	0.20%	0.32%	0.07%	0.14%	0.24%	0.26%

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).

Japanese currency struggles to hold gains amid growing concerns over speculation that the Bank of Japan (BoJ) will raise interest rates in the near term.

Hawkish BoJ prospects have come under pressure, following the entry of two new officials into the central bank’s nine-member board, and signs of easing price pressures.

Earlier this week, the administration announced the nomination of two members: Toichiro Asada and Ayano Sato for the BoJ’s board, at times when a report from Mainichi daily showed that Japan's Prime Minister (PM) Sanae Takaichi’s comments in meeting with Governor Kazuo Ueda on February 16 were in contrast to tightening monetary policy in the near term.

Earlier in the day, the data showed that Tokyo Consumer Price Index (CPI) ex. Fresh Food growth cooled down to 1.8% Year-on-Year (YoY) from 2% in January, but remained higher than estimates of 1.7%.

Meanwhile, the US Dollar (USD) trades broadly calm ahead of the United States (US) Producer Price Index (PPI) data for January, which will be published at 13:30 GMT. During the press time, the US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the Greenback’s value against six major currencies, trades flat around 97.75.

Investors will pay close attention to the US PPI data to get fresh cues on the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) monetary policy outlook.

Economic Indicator

Tokyo CPI ex Fresh Food (YoY)

The Tokyo Consumer Price Index (CPI), released by the Statistics Bureau of Japan on a monthly basis, measures the price fluctuation of goods and services purchased by households in the Tokyo region excluding fresh food, whose prices often fluctuate depending on the weather. The index is widely considered as a leading indicator of Japan’s overall CPI as it is published weeks before the nationwide reading. The YoY reading compares prices in the reference month to the same month a year earlier. Generally, a high reading is seen as bullish for the Japanese Yen (JPY), while a low reading is seen as bearish.

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