Bank of Japan Governor, Ueda, sent shockwaves through the financial markets today with his change in tone during a press conference, causing the USD/JPY pair to tumble by roughly 100 pips. Initially hugging the 148.00 mark, the pair is now trading closer to 147.00 amidst speculation of a potential policy move by Ueda in March or April. The pair is now moving closer towards a test of its 200-hour moving average (blue line) next at 146.88 currently, and sellers are also looking to keep a break below the 100-day moving average of 147.50.
The impact of USD/JPY’s decline is not only confined to the currency pair itself, but is also affecting the performance of the US dollar in general. This has resulted in EUR/USD rising by 0.3% to 1.0913 and USD/CHF falling by 0.5% to 0.8650. Furthermore, the antipodean currencies are extending earlier gains with AUD/USD up 0.6% to 0.6610 and NZD/USD up 0.6% to 0.6114. It remains to be seen how the market will react in the coming days as the impact of Ueda’s remarks continues to reverberate through the foreign exchange market.