Japanese yen is holding steady today, remaining mostly weak against its major counterparts. Thanks to a weak yen, GDP and company profits in Japan are showing improvement.
Japanese yen remains mostly weak against its major counterparts today, following profit reports from companies and data that indicates better than expected GDP for the first quarter of 2015.
The latest news out of Japan indicates record profits for many companies. Most of these profits are a result of income from exports. With the yen relatively weak, Japanese products are more attractive around the world. So, while domestic demand was down a little bit, international demand for Japanese products drove record profits for the recent fiscal year.
Japan’s GDP reading is also better than expected. In the first quarter of 2015, GDP rose 0.6 per cent to be on track for an annualized increase of 2.4 per cent. This beats expectations for a 0.4 per cent increase with a pace of 1.5 per cent.
Euro is down against the yen, but that’s expected. Most of the other major currencies are gaining against the yen today.
At 10:46 GMT USD/JPY is higher, moving up to 120.8779 from the open at 120.6920. EUR/JPY is down to 134.4480 from the open at 134.5700. GBP/JPY is up to 187.9240 from the open at 187.2250.
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