Forex - USD/JPY tumbles over 1% after BoJ stimulus disappoints

Forex

Business, Investing

The U.S. dollar tumbled over 1% to three-week lows against the yen on Friday, after the stimulus measures announced by the Bank of Japan disappointed markets and as investors now awaited the release of U.S. economic growth data due later in the day.

USD/JPY hit 102.72 during late Asian trade, the pair’s lowest since July 12; the pair subsequently consolidated at 103.69, down 1.50%.

The pair was likely to find support at 102.41, the low of July 12 and resistance at 106.54, the high of July 27.

At the conclusion of its monthly policy meeting on Friday, the BoJ announced a modest increase in purchases of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), but maintained its base money target at 80 trillion yen as well as the pace of purchases for other assets.

The central bank also kept negative interest rates unchanged at -0.1%.

The move disappointed expectations for a stimulus package of nearly 28 trillion yen promised by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier in the week to boost the economy.

The policy statement came after data showed that Japan’s household spending dropped 1.1% in June, compared to expectations for an uptick of 0.4% and after a 1.% decline the previous month.

A separate report showed that Japan’s retail sales declined by an annualized rate of 1.4% in June, compared to expectations for a 1.5% drop.

Investors were now eyeing the release of second quarter U.S. economic growth data, due later Friday, after the Federal Reserve shared a rather optimistic outlook this week.

In its monthly policy statement on Wednesday, the Fed said that “near-term risks to the economic outlook have diminished” and that the labor market has “strengthened”.

The yen was also higher against the euro, with EUR/JPY losing 1.56% to trade at 114.79.

Source Investing.com