At each and every point last year when yen bulls were anticipating a policy shift by the BOJ, they wound up getting scorched. Evidently, the burn scars are still seemingly painful as even with a positive nod on the spring wage negotiations outcome and more hawkish reports from local media, the yen is unable to get moving.
In fact, it is now trading lower on the day than before we got the bunch of headlines in the past hour:
USD/JPY 1-minute chart
If anything else, that shows how much of an impact the more cautious remarks from BOJ governor Ueda has had during the week. He gave no hints whatsoever of an imminent change to policy and that is enough to get traders to play things on the safe side.
It’s a case of being better safe than sorry, at the risk of being burned one last time by the BOJ. That does say something considering that 10-year JGB yields are at the highest since December last year at 0.785%.