USD-JPY moved sideways ahead of President Trump and Japan’s Prime Minister Ishiba’s meeting. The JPY has held on to its gains from yesterday, and notably, it has been the best performing currency in the G-10 space this week. The overnight comments by BoJ board member Naoki Tamura also helped, as he flagged the need for more interest rate hikes (Bloomberg). Some market participants might believe the recent fall in US yields – on the back of US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s comments on bringing down US 10-yr yields – could have driven the move lower in USD-JPY. However, by our estimates using historical elasticities, the narrower yield differential alone can explain about only half of the JPY’s c2.5% gain since the BoJ meeting.
For USD-JPY, we think the market’s focus is on two other factors (beyond yields): (i) US-Japan relations, and (ii) GPIF asset allocation. On the former, Scott Bessent has already spoken to Japan’s finance minister and the BoJ governor. President Trump and Prime Minister Ishiba are set to meet later tonight and markets are on high alert for any potential discussion about USD-JPY (being too high). On the latter, the GPIF’s next 5-year investment plan will start in April 2025 and markets are speculating that the GPIF could start divesting from foreign assets to increase its allocation in domestic bonds. It is worth mentioning that the GPIF has an AUM of USD1.65tn. Given local investors are under-hedged the downward momentum in USD-JPY could quickly take a life of its own.
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