Talking Points:
- Japan’s trade balance was ¥318.7b in August versus ¥264.3b expected
- The Japanese Yen failed to appreciate the trade surplus as exports fell
- Investors will probably look to BoJ’s Kuroda speech at 00:30 GMT
Where will the Japanese Yen go in the final 3 months of the year? Get our Q4 forecasts to find out here !
The Japanese Yen failed to appreciate slightly better-than-expected trade data. What was the outcome? Japan’s current account balance came in at ¥2380.4b in August versus ¥2223.3b expected and ¥2320.0b in July. Meanwhile, the trade surplus was ¥318.7b versus ¥264.3b expected and¥566.6b prior.
The details of the report revealed that export growth fell to ¥6,165.6b from ¥6,401.2b in the last reporting period. Meanwhile, imports were hardly changed from July coming in at ¥5,847.0b from ¥5,834.5b. That isn’t the brightest picture for an economy that relies a lot more on exporting than some of its major peers.
Even so, the bigger picture for the Japanese Yen probably has investors looking to a speech from the Govenror of the Bank of Japan at 00:30 GMT Tuesday. The currency took a hit not long ago when the central bank released dovish rhetoric in its summary of opinions report. Perhaps Kuroda himself will echo or add to what they have said before.
Meanwhile, intraday IG client sentiment gave a stronger USD/JPY bullish contrarian trading bias. The fact that traders are net-short suggests USD/JPY prices may continue to rise.
