With Japan on holiday for most of the week, yen price action was mainly influenced by counter currency flows and global risk sentiment.
Japanese Headlines and Economic data
Monday:
Big pop higher at the start of the week, likely on a fresh round of global economic news (global factory activity sinks to new lows) and renewed tensions between China and the U.S.
Japan’s Abe extends state of emergency to May 31
Wednesday:
Risk-off sentiment picked up to lift the yen somewhat broadly higher during the Wednesday U.S. session as we saw more anti-China commentary from US President Trump and Secretary of State Pompeo.
Thursday:
Japan’s Monetary Base expands by 2.3% in April vs. 2.8% in March
Positive global risk sentiment picks up a bit during the Thursday Asia session, likely off of better-than-expected Australian trade data to push the yen lower. The continued trend of more economies ending lockdown restrictions and more positive news on Gilead Sciences’ COVID-19 drug remdesivir likely played a factor as well.
Friday:
Japanese average cash earnings tick up by 0.1% as expected
Japanese economy minister Nishimura: Lifting of state of emergency may be in sight
Japanese household spending slipped by 6.0% y/y vs. projected 6.3% drop
Japan Services activity declines at survey-record rate, sinking to 21.5 in April
In combination with the net weaker economic updates from Japan above, the yen’s continued fall during the Friday session was likely a continuation of Thursday’s drivers, and possibly on not-as-bad-as-expected U.S. (20.5M jobs lost in April) and Canadian employment (2M jobs lost in April) updates.