USD/JPY extends downside to near 152.60 as USD weakens across the board
- USD/JPY declines further to near 152.60 as the US Dollar underperforms its peers amid upbeat market mood.
- US Trump didn’t reveal its detailed reciprocal tariff plan on Thursday.
- The BoJ is expected to raise interest rates again.
The USD/JPY pair falls further to near 152.60 in Friday’s European session. The asset weakens as the US Dollar (USD) underperforms across the board amid cheerful market mood.
US Dollar PRICE Today
The table below shows the percentage change of US Dollar (USD) against listed major currencies today. US Dollar was the strongest against the Canadian Dollar.
| USD | EUR | GBP | JPY | CAD | AUD | NZD | CHF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USD | -0.18% | -0.21% | -0.17% | -0.12% | -0.33% | -0.53% | -0.16% | |
| EUR | 0.18% | -0.03% | 0.02% | 0.06% | -0.15% | -0.35% | 0.00% | |
| GBP | 0.21% | 0.03% | 0.04% | 0.08% | -0.12% | -0.32% | 0.04% | |
| JPY | 0.17% | -0.02% | -0.04% | 0.02% | -0.19% | -0.39% | -0.03% | |
| CAD | 0.12% | -0.06% | -0.08% | -0.02% | -0.23% | -0.40% | -0.05% | |
| AUD | 0.33% | 0.15% | 0.12% | 0.19% | 0.23% | -0.20% | 0.16% | |
| NZD | 0.53% | 0.35% | 0.32% | 0.39% | 0.40% | 0.20% | 0.35% | |
| CHF | 0.16% | -0.01% | -0.04% | 0.03% | 0.05% | -0.16% | -0.35% |
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 US Dollar from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the Japanese Yen, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent USD (base)/JPY (quote).
Investors turn to risky assets as United States (US) President Donald Trump didn’t unveil the concrete reciprocal tariff plan on Thursday and asked treasury, commerce chiefs to work on reciprocity. However, market participants anticipated that Trump would reveal a detailed reciprocal tariff plan immediately. This scenario has eased fears of an immediate global trade war.
The US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the Greenback’s value against six major currencies, revisits an almost four-week low around 106.80.
Despite easing safe-haven appeal of the US Dollar in the current scenario, its outlook remains firm as investors expect the Federal Reserve (Fed) keep interest rates at their current levels for longer. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in his two-day testimony before the Congress that the central bank can maintain “policy restraint for longer” if economy remains strong and “inflation does not move toward 2%."
Meanwhile, the Japanese Yen (JPY) is also underperforming its peers, except the US Dollar, even though traders have become increasingly confident that the Bank of Japan (BoJ) will continue tightening the monetary policy.
BoJ hawkish bets have been prompted by inflationary pressures remaining above the 2% target for longer and firm expectations that wages will increase further.
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.
Author
Sagar Dua
FXStreet
Sagar Dua is associated with the financial markets from his college days. Along with pursuing post-graduation in Commerce in 2014, he started his markets training with chart analysis.
