The Japanese Yen (JPY) trades flat against the US Dollar (USD) at around 162.50 during the Asian trading session on Tuesday, closer to its multi-decade high of 162.84. The USD/JPY pair will likely remain sideways as investors seek fresh cues regarding whether the United States (US) and Iran will announce a ceasefire or will continue exchanging attacks.
In the Asian trade, the US Dollar Index (DXY), which gauges the Greenback’s value against six major currencies, trades flat around 101.00.
According to a report from Axios, US President Donald Trump will either accept the 10-day ceasefire with Iran and resume negotiations towards an interim deal or call for a joint full-scale military campaign with Israel against Iran.
On Monday, a senior Iranian official confirmed receiving a proposal for a 10-day ceasefire from mediators to resume talks on an interim deal.
On the domestic front, investors await Japan’s National Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for June, which will be released on Friday. Investors will pay close attention to the inflation data to get cues regarding the Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) monetary policy outlook. The National CPI ex. Fresh Food is expected to arrive at 1.6% Year-on-Year (YoY), higher than 1.4% in May.
Meanwhile, the next key trigger for the US Dollar will be the preliminary S&P Global PMI data for July, which will be released on Thursday.
Japanese Yen FAQs
The Japanese Yen (JPY) is one of the world’s most traded currencies. Its value is broadly determined by the performance of the Japanese economy, but more specifically by the Bank of Japan’s policy, the differential between Japanese and US bond yields, or risk sentiment among traders, among other factors.
One of the Bank of Japan’s mandates is currency control, so its moves are key for the Yen. The BoJ has directly intervened in currency markets sometimes, generally to lower the value of the Yen, although it refrains from doing it often due to political concerns of its main trading partners. The BoJ ultra-loose monetary policy between 2013 and 2024 caused the Yen to depreciate against its main currency peers due to an increasing policy divergence between the Bank of Japan and other main central banks. More recently, the gradually unwinding of this ultra-loose policy has given some support to the Yen.
Over the last decade, the BoJ’s stance of sticking to ultra-loose monetary policy has led to a widening policy divergence with other central banks, particularly with the US Federal Reserve. This supported a widening of the differential between the 10-year US and Japanese bonds, which favored the US Dollar against the Japanese Yen. The BoJ decision in 2024 to gradually abandon the ultra-loose policy, coupled with interest-rate cuts in other major central banks, is narrowing this differential.
The Japanese Yen is often seen as a safe-haven investment. This means that in times of market stress, investors are more likely to put their money in the Japanese currency due to its supposed reliability and stability. Turbulent times are likely to strengthen the Yen’s value against other currencies seen as more risky to invest in.