The yen briefly broke the 150 units per dollar mark this Tuesday In the forex market for the first time since October 2022 Japanese Manager declined to comment on a possible intervention. “We refrain from making any comments,” Japanese Deputy Finance Minister Masato Kanda, the main person in charge of currency issues, told the media today after the yen broke the 150-unit psychological barrier and subsequently rose sharply, sparking speculation about an intervention. .
In the first hour of negotiations on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the yen moved between 148.95 and 149.23 units per dollar; monetary authorities Japanese they could have intervened to buy the yen to stabilize its decline. Although he did not want to comment on the matter, Kanda stated that the Japanese government is “firmly committed to responding appropriately to excessive exchange rate fluctuations without excluding any available means.”
Along the same lines, Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said in a separate speech that he would not comment on whether there was interference, but assured: “When there are extreme movements, we will take appropriate measures without ruling out any intervention.” The alternative is the search for “stability” in the foreign exchange market.
This new depreciation of the yen gradual cheapening The event, which has caused concern in the country and has previously led to several monetary interventions, occurred after the release of better-than-expected job offer data in the United States, leading to an increase in the selling of the Japanese currency. This decline was associated with the widening gap between interest rate increases implemented in the United States and the monetary policies implemented by the Bank of Japan (BoJ) in favor of continuing stimulus measures that include ultra-low interest rates.
In September 2022, the Japanese government carried out its first monetary intervention since 2011, which aimed to support the value of the national currency and involved buying the yen since 1998. Weak yen benefits Japanese companies’ overseas turnoverThose who see their remittances swell by repatriation and increasing the competitiveness of their products, but this also has a negative impact on national accounts. making imports more expensive In a country that is highly dependent on them.
Nikkei down 2 percent at open
The Tokyo Stock Exchange’s main index, the Nikkei, fell more than 2% at the opening of the session this Wednesday, driven by losses on Wall Street amid expectations of larger monetary adjustments following the employment data.
After the first hour and 40 minutes of the session, Nikkei, which brings together the 225 titles that most represent the market, dropped by 656.33, or 2.1%, to 30,581.61 points, dropping the psychological barrier of 31,000 units for the first time. Almost four months have passed since last June 1.
The broader Topix selector, which includes companies with the largest capitalizations in the main section, lost 2.03%, or 46.17 points, to 2,229.30 units.