US dollar weakness has resumed with USD/JPY falling back towards 100.
Aside from USD/JPY and CAD/JPY, all of the other yen crosses actually ended the day in positive territory. There was no Japanese economic data released but Bank of Japan officials continued to sound a cautionary tone. Shirakawa talked about the downside risks to growth while Nishimura indicated that the central bank’s long-term priority is to boost consumption. The Wall Street Journal had a good article today about the problems with wage growth in Japan. The central bank seems to acknowledge that this is an issue which may partially explain today’s comments. The merchandise trade balance is due for release this evening. The big rally in the Yen actually did not come until February which means that the trade surplus could remain steady.
