The lead in to the Asia session:
Ahead of the Bank of Japan
policy statement we saw some moves for major FX but most of them were
round trips. EUR/USD, for example, moved back towards it overnight
high, but fell a little short of 1.1120 before retracing back to
circa 1.1090 and then below. It was a similar pattern for
AUD/USD,NZD/USD, GBP/USD. USD/CAD has been range bound despite the
rally for oil futures during the session.
Ahead
of the
BOJ
USD/JPY
net added a few points.
News
flow was very light. On the data front we had above expected headline
inflation from Japan (February data)
but
below-expected CPI once food and energy prices were removed (the ex
food and energy CPI is the closest to the US ‘core’ CPI measure)
The BOJ monetary policy decision came in as exp[ected, the main policy planks were left unchanged (see bullets above).
USD/JPY showed little immediate response to the statement after gaining a few popints in the hours preceding: