JPY started at Y101.33 against the dollar this morning and at Y138.83 against the euro, and spent the early hours of the session stuck in narrow ranges. Dollar-yen traded at Y101.23/33 while the cross shuffled between Y138.70 and Y138.83 as the market eyed the BOJ’s policy announcement for clues. The release of Japan’s trade data for April followed by a lower open in Japanese stocks a few minutes after, put dollar-yen under slight pressure but losses were held at Y101.23. It was holding around there when theBOJ announced it was keeping policy on hold and dollar-yen barely budged initially. There was however a knee-jerk rally when the market zoomed in on the BOJ’s outlook for inflation, which lifted dollar-yen up to a Y101.40 high. The move however, ran out of steam soon after and dollar-yen slid back to trade a fresh low for the morning at Y101.13 where strong demand noted from Y101.10 and below cushioned the move. Dollar-yen was last at Y101.18, with stops noted on any break below Y101.00. Further down, more stops are expected at Y101.80 with the 2104 low then coming in beneath that at Y100.75, traded on Feb. 4. Euro-yen was last at Y138.64 after briefly trading a Y138.93 high after the BOJ.
