The Japanese yen rallied during Friday’s trading session. Market analysts explained the rally by risk aversion ahead of the US presidential election as well as by mostly positive macroeconomic reports released in Japan over the trading session. Currently, though, the currency has trimmed its gains, losing them outright against some of its rivals.
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Health, and Industry reported that industrial production climbed by 4.0% in September from a year ago, exceeding the average forecast of a 3.0% growth and accelerating from the 1.0% rate of growth registered in the previous month. According to a report from the Statistics Bureau of Japan, the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.0% last month, whereas experts had predicted a small increase to 3.1%. The Tokyo core Consumer Price Index fell by 0.5% in October, year-on-year, matching market expectations. The decline accelerated compared with the previous month’s 0.2% rate of fall. Month-on-month, the index fell by 0.2%.
Yesterday, the Bank of Japan made a monetary policy announcement. As was widely expected, the central bank kept its monetary policy unchanged but downgraded its economic projections.
USD/JPY fell from 104.60 to 104.45 as of 10:50 GMT today, touching the low of 104.12 intraday. CAD/JPY traded at 78.45 after opening at 78.50 and falling to the daily low of 78.01. GBP/JPY opened at 135.17, dropped to the session minimum of 134.40 intraday but rebounded to 135.52 later.
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