Yen Is Getting Stronger: Market Review, 19.09.2018

The Japanese yen is strengthening against the US dollar, with the pair trading around 112.27. Today's morning, August export data came out and beat the previous month data thanks to more exports to the US, as the latter keep imposing new customs duties on China. The export figure rose by 6.6% YoY compared to 3.9% in July and the expected value at 5.6%. Meanwhile, export to the US only rose by 5.3% YoY, while the import skyrocketed by 21.5% because of natural gas and aircraft shipments.

The US has also some tensions with Japan, too, but Tokyo hopes to resolve all issues via talks in late September.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan meeting was quite neutral, just as expected. The interest rate was left unchanged at -0.10%, and the QE is still here to stay: the BoJ buys assets worth 80T yens every year, and this is not going to change in the near future. At the same time, BoJ managers say some slight corrections may be made depending on the demand.

The overall assessment of the Japanese economy did not change either, which supported the yen a bit and it slightly increased its value against the greenback.