Today, the upward movement of USD/JPY has paused. In the morning, Finance Minister Kanda made a rare statement of concern about excessive yen depreciation. Initially, the market’s reaction to this statement was relatively mild, with the yen strengthening by around 20 sen, but later there was an attempt to push USD/JPY below the 147 yen level.
Finance Minister Kanda is known for his keen grasp of market conditions and has been effective in taking action when market movements appear excessive or overextended from a chart perspective. Foreign investors are likely to be aware of this, and we may see some tentative buying of the yen as an initial precaution against intervention.
In the international market later, there are many scheduled releases of U.S. economic indicators, including Eurozone retail sales (July), U.S. MBA mortgage application index (August 26 – September 1), U.S. trade balance (July), U.S. non-manufacturing PMI (final value) (August), and U.S. ISM non-manufacturing economic index (August). In Canada, international merchandise trade (July) and the Bank of Canada’s policy interest rate announcement are scheduled.
I am currently holding a short position on USD/JPY, anticipating a bearish bias as the yen strengthens. The long position on GOLD from yesterday has already been stopped out, and at present, I only hold the short position on USD/JPY.
