* BOJ meets for 2nd day debate, decision likely 0330-0500 GMT
From DailyFX:
Sometime today, likely in the next several hours, the Bank of Japan will announce its latest policy decision. This particular meeting was actually scheduled for November 16th, but at the last meeting on October 28th, the central bank moved the date of this meeting forward. The BOJâs explicit reason for the move was âto discuss the principal terms and conditions for the purchases of exchange traded funds and Japanese real estate investment trusts with a view to promptly starting their purchases.â In other words, the central bank wants to get its $5 trillion Yen quantitative easing program started as soon as possible.
But many in the markets felt that the timing of the move was suspicious. After all, it is coming only days after the highly-anticipated Federal Reserve meeting which the BOJ knew would feature a significant new QE program from the U.S. central bank. Many in the market thus believe that the BOJ moved up its meeting so it would have the flexibility to react quickly to the Fedâs decision were it to create substantial movements in currency markets. BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa has outright denied this, âwe didnât take them into consideration,â he has said in reference to the Fed meeting.
But regardless of what any BOJ officials say explicitly, moving up the meeting has given them the opportunity to react. So, can we expect that they will take additional action on top of the $5 trillion Yen program that was already announced?
Itâs hard to say. While the Bank of Japan is constantly trying to come up with creative ways to support an economy mired by crippling deflation, the fact that the central bank just initiated a significant new program at the last meeting means that further action is less likely than would usually be the case. Moreover, the Federal Reserveâs program of $600 billion in Treasury purchases has not had the affect of sending the Yen to new highs. In fact, USD/JPY has held recent lows near 80, while crosses such as EUR/JPY and GBP/JPY have actually rallied notably in the last couple of days.
That being said, any trader with positions in Yen pairs must always be on the lookout for potential action from the BOJ. If the central bank responds to the Fedâs QE program with an increase in its own QE program, the Japanese currency would likely sink dramatically as the move would be seen as an aggressive defense against further Yen appreciation.
If the BOJ instead takes no action at this policy meeting, traders will have to watch to see whether USD/JPY can hold recent lows near 80, just above the all-time lows of 79.75. If it can, there is a good chance the pair may finally be bottoming out. Otherwise, a break would simply be seen as a resumption of the downtrend that has plagued this pair for months now.
Traders may wish to focus on Yen crosses such as AUD/JPY, NZD/JPY, and CAD/JPY, for they have the potential to advance regardless of what comes out of the BOJ today.