Once again it was mainly about yen across major FX today. USD/JPY popped above 129.00 in very early Asia trade before topping out on the session around 129.40. The Bank of Japan intervened in the JGB market again today (they had done so in late March) to buy an unlimited amount of 10 year Japanese Government Bonds. The yield on these had hit 0.25% early in the Japan morning. This rate is the top of the BOJ band for the 10yr yield and thus the Bank entered the market.
USD/JPY dipped only momentarily on the BOJ announcement of its operation. USD/JPY has since dropped back under 128.80 (as I update). There has been some verbal intervention (see bullets above) from a Japanese government spokesperson (the Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary).
The People’s Bank of China left key interest rates unchanged today in the face of expectations of a rate cut from a majority of market analysts. The one-year loan prime rate (LPR) was held at 3.70% while the five-year remained at 4.60%.
The PBOC did set the CNY reference rate much weaker than expected, though, the lowest for CNY against the USD since the second week of November last year.
The actions from the PBOC saw AUD/USD drop to around 0.7375 (from earlier highs just over 0.7400) but this was short-lived and as I post AUD/USD has made a fresh session high above 0.7410.
Elsewhere EUR, GBP, NZD and CAD have all added points against the USD to varying extents.