Talking Points
- Japanese retail sales missed forecasts for May
- One bright spot was that the run of annualized gains at least continues
- The Japanese Yen didn’t have much time for the release
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The Japanese Yen showed little reaction Thursday to news that domestic retail sales missed expectations in May.
Official data showed a fall of 1.6% on the month, worse than the 1% decline which markets had expected. The annualized picture was a little brighter. There sales rose 2%. That was well below the 2.6% forecasted increase but it did at least mean a seventh consecutive month of gains for this series.
The overall message appears to be that, while persistently slow wage growth is still acting as a brake on shoppers, private consumption is creeping upward albeit at a snail’s pace.
The Yen wasn’t much moved by Thursday’s data releases, with currency markets more focused on recent commentary by various high-level central bankers including Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi.
Numbers released simultaneously showed that Foreign investors sold Japanese bonds at a faster pace last week than in previous weeks, while selling stocks at a slower pace. Japanese buying of foreign bond slowed while purchases of foreign stocks were steady.
Friday will see the release of some more important Japanese economic numbers in the form of official consumer price and unemployment data.
--- Written by David Cottle, DailyFX Research
Contact and follow David on Twitter: @DavidCottleFX
