After G20, Yen Poised to Hit 100.00

At the beginning of a new trading week, the Japanese Yen once again finds itself under pressure against the U.S. Dollar to hit the 100.00 level which has been eluding the USD/JPY pair for many weeks. At the conclusion of the most recent G20 meeting in Washington, D.C., participants acknowledged only that they would continue to be aware of the repercussions from extended easing so long as monetary policy is considered which ensures domestic price stability. Because they failed to raise any outright criticism of the Japanese government’s efforts to devalue the Yen, currency analysts believe that that failure to criticize essentially justifies the Bank of Japan’s current easing policy and gives policy makers license to continue.

Given the foregoing, currency strategists anticipate that this week could finally see a break of the 4-year peak of 99.95 Yen which was struck earlier this month and a decided march toward the 100.00 Yen price. As reported at 10:03 a.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the USD/JPY pair was trading at 99.86 Yen, a gain of 0.3% from late trading in New York on Friday and only a few pips from the session high of 99.90 Yen. The EUR/JPY pair also traded higher, at one point hitting 130.34 Yen from Friday’s 129.98 Yen, not too far from a recently struck 3-year high.