Yen Weakens USD/JPY But Loonie Climbs CAD/GBP On Strong Domestic Data

Published: 9 Sep at 4 PM Tags: Euro, Dollar, Pound Sterling, America, Eurozone, Canadian Dollar, Australia, USA, Canada, China, Italy, Japan,

With Tokyo securing the Olympics for 2020 and the Japanese economy expanding more than originally forecast, it seems that the Abenomics approach adopted by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is having the desired effect.

As Japan’s economy was shown to have expanded by 3.8 per cent in the second quarter from the first, improving optimism regarding the nation’s recovery saw the safe-haven Yen decline against its peers. Economists expected the Cabinet Office data to show annualised growth of 2.6 per cent.

In response to the Yen’s tumble currency strategist Mike Jones commented: ‘Victory for Tokyo’s Olympics bid is seen as helping to renew faith in Abe and his efforts to re-inflate the economy. That’s weighing on the Yen.’

Similarly, one Tokyo-based market analyst noted; ‘Winning the Olympic bid is boosting the mood of investors. There’s expectations it’s going to support Japan’s economic recovery as a fourth arrow to Abenomics’.

The Yen weakened to 100.1000 against the US Dollar as the safe-haven asset’s appeal was reduced further by some better-than-expected export data from China.

With Chinese exports advancing by 7.2 per cent in August rather than the 5.5 per cent expected, global trade prospects improved and investors favoured higher-risk assets.

The publication of minutes from the Bank of Japan’s latest policy meeting will take place at 00:50. If the minutes make any hint of the BOJ reducing the unprecedented level of stimulus adopted by the central bank earlier this year the Yen could experience fluctuations.

After a rather active Australasian session, an absence of significant news kept the currency market fairly muted during European trading.

However, when North American markets opened a seriously strong Canadian building permit report helped the ‘Loonie’ extend gains against peers like the US Dollar and Pound.

The commodity-driven asset was still riding high from last week’s better-than-anticipated local employment report and strengthened to C$1.0419 against the ‘Greenback.’

Influential economic data to focus on tomorrow includes China’s industrial production and retail sales figures, an Australian business conditions index and Italian GDP.
As of Monday, 9th September 2013, the Pound Sterling currency rates mentioned within this news item were as follows:

GBP EUR exchange rate was 1.1843, GBP USD exchange rate was 1.5694, GBP CAD exchange rate was 1.6286, GBP AUD exchange rate was 1.7014, GBP CNY exchange rate was 9.6061, and GBP JPY exchange rate was 156.4332.

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