- Japanese Yen falls back against the US Dollar, with the USD/JPY pair rebounding to near 156.55.
- Japan’s FM Katayama warned of possible intervention on Thursday.
- The Fed is largely expected to keep interest rates at their current levels by the year-end.
The Japanese Yen (JPY) gives up gains recorded in the early European trade against the US Dollar (USD) during the early North American trading session on Friday. The USD/JPY pair rebounds to near 156.55 after sliding to around 155.50, but is still marginally down.
In the early European session, a sudden spike was observed in the Japanese Yen, which was expected to be due to possible Japanese intervention in forex markets. However, there had been no official announcement regarding the same.
A stealth intervention by Japan was highly anticipated as Finance Minister (FM) Satsuki Katayama said on Thursday that they are moving closer to taking decisive action in the foreign exchange markets.
Meanwhile, the upside in the USD/JPY pair is expected to be limited as the US Dollar (USD) is broadly underperforming despite expectations that the Federal Reserve (Fed) will not cut interest rates for the entire year.
US Dollar Price Today
The table below shows the percentage change of US Dollar (USD) against listed major currencies today. US Dollar was the weakest against the Euro.
| USD | EUR | GBP | JPY | CAD | AUD | NZD | CHF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USD | -0.16% | -0.08% | -0.05% | -0.11% | 0.07% | 0.27% | -0.13% | |
| EUR | 0.16% | 0.08% | 0.11% | 0.03% | 0.25% | 0.42% | 0.03% | |
| GBP | 0.08% | -0.08% | 0.02% | -0.03% | 0.15% | 0.32% | -0.02% | |
| JPY | 0.05% | -0.11% | -0.02% | -0.06% | 0.12% | 0.27% | -0.07% | |
| CAD | 0.11% | -0.03% | 0.03% | 0.06% | 0.17% | 0.36% | 0.00% | |
| AUD | -0.07% | -0.25% | -0.15% | -0.12% | -0.17% | 0.18% | -0.16% | |
| NZD | -0.27% | -0.42% | -0.32% | -0.27% | -0.36% | -0.18% | -0.36% | |
| CHF | 0.13% | -0.03% | 0.02% | 0.07% | -0.00% | 0.16% | 0.36% |
The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the US Dollar from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the Japanese Yen, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent USD (base)/JPY (quote).
According to the CME FedWatch tool, the odds of the Fed keeping interest rates unchanged in the current range of 3.50%-3.75% by the year end is 83.6%.
In Friday’s session, investors will focus on the US ISM Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) data for April, which will be published at 14:00 GMT. The US ISM Manufacturing PMI is expected to come in higher at 53.0 from 52.7 in March.
