ECB Bank Forum: Ueda and Powell's Insights on Rate Policy and USD/JPY

Ueda, Powell participating in panel at ECB Bank Forum
Japanese yen slips below 144
US consumer confidence surges higher

USD/JPY continues to push higher and is closing in on the 145 line. In the North American session, the yen is trading at 144.60, up 0.37%.

Will Ueda provide any clues at ECB Bank Forum?

It’s a quiet day on the data calendar, with no important US releases. In Japan, retail sales are expected to improve to 5.4%, up from 5.0%. Today’s highlight is the ECB Bank Forum in Sintra, with the heads of the major central banks taking part in a panel on policy. Bank of Japan Governor Ueda and Fed Chair Powell will participate and any hints about rate policy could move USD/JPY.

The Fed and the BoJ are in very different situations, which could make the ECB event all the more interesting. The Fed is close to its tightening cycle, in which it has raised rates by some 500 points. Fed Chair Powell has hinted at a couple of more rates this year, but if inflation continues to fall, the Fed could start chopping rates early in 2023.

The BoJ has maintained its ultra-loose policy, even as all the other major banks have raised rates in order to curb inflation. The BoJ has insisted that inflation is temporary, even though it remains above the Bank’s target of 2%. The BoJ isn’t looking at raising interest rates anytime soon, although it could tweak its yield curve control policy in order to prop up the ailing Japanese yen, which has plunged 3.7% in the month of June.

Ed Moya

With more than 20 years’ trading experience, Ed Moya is a senior market analyst with OANDA, producing up-to-the-minute intermarket analysis, coverage of geopolitical events, central bank policies and market reaction to corporate news. His particular expertise lies across a wide range of asset classes including FX, commodities, fixed income, stocks and cryptocurrencies. Over the course of his career, Ed has worked with some of the leading forex brokerages, research teams and news departments on Wall Street including Global Forex Trading, FX Solutions and Trading Advantage. Most recently he worked with TradeTheNews.com, where he provided market analysis on economic data and corporate news. Based in New York, Ed is a regular guest on several major financial television networks including CNBC, Bloomberg TV, Yahoo! Finance Live, Fox Business and Sky TV. His views are trusted by the world’s most renowned global newswires including Reuters, Bloomberg and the Associated Press, and he is regularly quoted in leading publications such as MSN, MarketWatch, Forbes, Breitbart, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Ed holds a BA in Economics from Rutgers University.