Yen Strong as Trade Wars Continue to Hurt Market Sentiment

The Japanese yen climbed against most major currencies today as the trade war between the United States and China continued to cause risk aversion on markets. Japan’s macroeconomic data was disappointing, but as it often happens, the currency paid little attention to domestic economic reports.
China yet again blamed the USA for the failure of trade negotiations as Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Gao Feng said today:

If the US would like to keep on negotiating it should, with sincerity, adjust its wrong actions. Only then can talks continue.

As a result of increasing tensions, stock markets collapsed. And traders are now preparing for the possibility that trade wars will persist for longer than was initially expecting.
As for Japan’s macroeconomic data, the flash Nikkei Flash Japan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index dropped to 49.6 in May from 50.2 in April. That is instead of rising to 50.5 as analysts had predicted.
USD/JPY sank from 110.35 to 109.50 as of 18:54 GMT today. EUR/JPY declined from 123.04 to 122.46, touching the low of 122.14 intraday. GBP/JPY tumbled from 139.62 to 138.59.

If you have any questions, comments, or opinions regarding the Japanese Yen, feel free to post them using the commentary form below.

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