Week in review
The USD/JPY opened the week at 153.77. The BOJ's Summary of Opinions from the October Monetary Policy Meeting, released on the morning of 10 November, was taken as broadly hawkish, but yen selling persisted as risk appetite improved after the US Congress made progress on passing a stopgap budget to end the partial government shutdown. The yen weakened further on 12 November after comments by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi were seen as signaling resistance to BOJ rate hikes, and the USD/JPY reached 155 during overseas trading. The psychological threshold capped gains, and the pair failed to hold above 155 on 13 November, edging lower instead. The USD/JPY fell below 154.50 in US trading hours amid a decline in share prices, bonds, and the dollar. The pair lost direction after that and was trading around 154.50 at the time of writing on 14 November (Figure 1). Among G10 currencies this week, both the dollar and the yen weakened. The Swiss franc strengthened during the stock market adjustment later in the week (Figure 2).
FIGURE 1: USD/JPY
Note: As at 15:00 JST on 14 November
Source: EBS, Refinitiv, MUFG
FIGURE 2: MAJOR CURRENCIES' RATE OF CHANGE VS USD THIS WEEK
Note: As at 15:00 JST on 14 November
Source: Bloomberg, MUFG