Most Popular
1. Banking Crisis is Stocks Bull Market Buying Opportunity - Nadeem_Walayat
2.The Crypto Signal for the Precious Metals Market - P_Radomski_CFA
3. One Possible Outcome to a New World Order - Raymond_Matison
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
5. Apple AAPL Stock Trend and Earnings Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
6.AI, Stocks, and Gold Stocks – Connected After All - P_Radomski_CFA
7.Stock Market CHEAT SHEET - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.US Debt Ceiling Crisis Smoke and Mirrors Circus - Nadeem_Walayat
9.Silver Price May Explode - Avi_Gilburt
10.More US Banks Could Collapse -- A Lot More- EWI
Last 7 days
Stock Market Volatility (VIX) - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Investor Sentiment - 25th Mar 24
The Federal Reserve Didn't Do Anything But It Had Plenty to Say - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Breadth - 24th Mar 24
Stock Market Margin Debt Indicator - 24th Mar 24
It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - 24th Mar 24
Stocks: What to Make of All This Insider Selling- 24th Mar 24
Money Supply Continues To Fall, Economy Worsens – Investors Don’t Care - 24th Mar 24
Get an Edge in the Crypto Market with Order Flow - 24th Mar 24
US Presidential Election Cycle and Recessions - 18th Mar 24
US Recession Already Happened in 2022! - 18th Mar 24
AI can now remember everything you say - 18th Mar 24
Bitcoin Crypto Mania 2024 - MicroStrategy MSTR Blow off Top! - 14th Mar 24
Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - 11th Mar 24
Gold and the Long-Term Inflation Cycle - 11th Mar 24
Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - 11th Mar 24
Two Reasons The Fed Manipulates Interest Rates - 11th Mar 24
US Dollar Trend 2024 - 9th Mar 2024
The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - 9th Mar 2024
Investors Don’t Believe the Gold Rally, Still Prefer General Stocks - 9th Mar 2024
Paper Gold Vs. Real Gold: It's Important to Know the Difference - 9th Mar 2024
Stocks: What This "Record Extreme" Indicator May Be Signaling - 9th Mar 2024
My 3 Favorite Trade Setups - Elliott Wave Course - 9th Mar 2024
Bitcoin Crypto Bubble Mania! - 4th Mar 2024
US Interest Rates - When WIll the Fed Pivot - 1st Mar 2024
S&P Stock Market Real Earnings Yield - 29th Feb 2024
US Unemployment is a Fake Statistic - 29th Feb 2024
U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - 29th Feb 2024
What a Breakdown in Silver Mining Stocks! What an Opportunity! - 29th Feb 2024
Why AI will Soon become SA - Synthetic Intelligence - The Machine Learning Megatrend - 29th Feb 2024
Keep Calm and Carry on Buying Quantum AI Tech Stocks - 19th Feb 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

China Japan Forex Battle

Currencies / Fiat Currency Sep 16, 2010 - 09:34 AM GMT

By: Ashraf_Laidi

Currencies

While many have assessed Japan's powerful intervention (JPY 2 trillion worth of currency selling) via the lens of the US dollar, the operation could be a loud warning shot to Beijing, given the record buying of Japanese Government Bonds by China. Cynics (possibly realists) could reason that China seeks to hamper Japan's recovery by keeping the yen excessively strong, while profiting along the way (via accumulating appreciating yen and gradually reducing exposure to depreciating US dollars). After all, the race for the 2nd biggest economy remains in close contention between China and Japan.


Japan's finance minister Noda has already stated "I don't know the true intention", referring to China's JPY 583 bln purchases of JGBs in July after JPY 457 bln of purchases in June. Why would the Japanese Finance Minister make such a suspicious remark? The post-intervention statements from Tokyo regarding its resolve to pursue further action sound like a warning shot to Beijing's yen-purchases as opposed to the average currency speculator.

So how will Beijing React?

It could do so by tightening monetary policy via a rate HIKE and not merely -- instead of merely raising the reserve requirement after August CPI jumped to 3.5%. A PBOC tightening would have TWO OBJECTIVES; 1) address Washington's currency pressure on China. Followers of US-China currency diplomacy recall that Beijing usually responded to US FX pressures by tightening policy (either via raising rates or the reserve requirements on the basis that it is moving towards a market-based mechanism of monetary policy) rather than revaluing the currency; 2) A tightening would upset the risk trade (especially as S&P500 struggles near the 1130 resistance) and lead to fresh JPY strengthening, which would work in the favour of China's growing yen holdings.

As for the Fed, it is now operating with both hands tied behind its back evaluating whether to announce a baby-step QE2 at next week's FOMC meeting, or at the November FOMC, which coincides with the Mid-Term Election Day. While I constantly focused on the USD angle of this intervention to my twitter followers today (@alaidi) , it is important to evaluate this currency dynamic from a Japan-China perspective. You do not have to be a fan of conspiracy theories but simply an observer of economic balance of power and the pursuit of profits in a yield-thin universe.

For more frequent FX & Commodity calls & analysis, follow me on Twitter Twitter.com/alaidi

By Ashraf Laidi
AshrafLaidi.com

Ashraf Laidi is the Chief FX Analyst at CMC Markets NA. This publication is intended to be used for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. CMC Markets (US) LLC is registered as a Futures Commission Merchant with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and is a member of the National Futures Association.

Ashraf Laidi Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in