Investing.com - Earlier this week the U.S. dollar was found
hovering near its highest levels against the Japanese yen since
2010, but the greenback is giving back some of those gains in
Wednesday's Asian session as traders appear concerned the Japanese
currency has weakened too rapidly too quickly against some of its
major rivals.
In Asian trading Wednesday, USD/JPY plunged 0.5% to 88.36. The pair
was likely to find support at 86.84, the low from Jan. 8, and
resistance at 89.64, Monday's high.
The yen has been under pressure for at least two months, since it
became apparent that Shinzo Abe was a credible candidate to become
Japan's next prime minister and after he won that election in
mid-December.
Abe has been overt in his attempts to get the Bank of Japan to
engage in unlimited monetary easing and raise its inflation target
to 2% from the current level of 1%. His rhetoric has had the
desired effect of weakening the yen while boosting shares of
Japanese exporters.
However, not all Japanese policymakers want to see the currency
depreciate so rapidly. On Tuesday Japanese Economy Minister Akira
Amari roiled currency markets by saying too much depreciation too
soon could hamper Japan's already fragile economy, the world's
third-largest.
A pair of economic reports out earlier today highlighted just
fragile the Japanese economy is. Japan's corporate goods price
index rose more-than-expected last month, official data showed on
Tuesday.
In a report, Bank of Japan said that Japan's Corporate Goods Price
Index rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of -0.6%, from
-0.9% in the preceding month. Analysts had expected Japan's
Corporate Goods Price Index to rise to -0.7% last month.
Japan's core machinery orders rose unexpectedly last month,
official data showed on Tuesday.
In a report, Economic and Social Research Institute said that
Japan's Core Machinery Orders rose to 3.9%, from 2.6% in the
preceding month. Analysts had expected Japan's Core Machinery
Orders to fall to 0.3% last month.
Elsewhere, EUR/JPY slipped 0.69% to 117.34 while AUD/JPY tumbled
0.52% to 93.31.
Investing.com -
Investing.com
offers an extensive set of professional tools for the Forex,
Commodities, Futures and the Stock Market including real-time data
streaming, a comprehensive economic calendar, as well as financial
news and technical & fundamental analysis by in-house experts.
Read more News on Investing.com or Follow us on Twitter at @
Newsinvesting