The Japanese yen opened sharply lower and proceeded to fall against all other most-trade currencies, emerging as the weakest currency on the Forex market today. While the main reason for the drop was risk appetite caused by positive macroeconomic reports in China, domestic macroeconomic data did not do any good to the Japanese currency either.
Japan’s Tankan large manufacturing index dropped from 19 in the fourth quarter of 2018 to 12 in the first quarter of this year. The large non-manufacturing index fell from 24 to 21. Experts had predicted a reading of 13 and 22 for the manufacturing and non-manufacturing indices respectively.
The Nikkei Japan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index logged a reading of 49.2 in March. While it was above the consensus forecast that was promising the index to stay unchanged at 48.9, the figure was still below the neutral “no-change” level of 50.0.
Markets were in a risk-on mode today following the release of surprisingly positive reports in China. The yen usually finds less demand in a risk-positive environment.
USD/JPY was about flat at 111.00 as of 9:59 GMT today after closing at 110.81 on Friday. EUR/JPY rose from 124.65 to 124.77, moving further away from Friday’s close of 124.28. GBP/JPY jumped from 144.74 to 145.32 following the Friday’s close at 144.37.
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