The Yen is trying to strengthen. Overview for 29.07.2019

On the last Monday of July, USDJPY is trading downwards; investors are very cautious in anticipation of the US Federal Reserve meeting. 

The Japanese Yen is slowly growing against the USD on Monday morning while market players are deciding on their weekly strategies and monitoring the American currency. The current quote for the instrument is 108.56. 

In the morning, Japan reported on the Retail Sales in June, which added 0.5% y/y after expanding by 1.3% y/y the month before and against the expected reading of +0.2% y/y. The fact that the indicator remains positive is surely good, but the slowdown means that the retail sales sector is very unlikely to provide significant support to the GDP growth. 

On Tuesday, the Bank of Japan will conclude its two-day meeting and decide on the monetary policy. Current market expectations imply that the benchmark rate will remain intact at -0.1%, but the QE program might expand. Latest statistics showed that the Japanese economy needed more significant support. The Japanese regulator is aware of this, so investors shouldn’t exclude a possibility that the BoJ may reinforce the support to the country’s economy by implementing more active economic incentives.  

The US Federal Reserve will also have its meeting this week, thus reducing activity on the market due to “blurred” prospects of further fiscal steps from the American regulator: investors prefer save their strengths and wait for the facts.