The Japanese yen is lower on Monday. In the European session, USD/JPY is trading at 152.63, up 0.22% at the time of writing. The yen weakened as far as 153.88 but has pared most of the losses.
Yen Slumps After Ichida Loses Parliamentary Majority
The new trading week has barely begun but the markets are busy digesting the drama out of Tokyo. The snap parliamentary election over the weekend was a disaster for new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, as his Liberal Democratic Party (LPD) coalition won just 215 seats, short of the 233 majority.
Ishiba has been in power for only a month and the snap election backfired as the LDP lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since 2009. It’s unclear if Ishiba will be able to cobble together a majority and the political uncertainty could push the yen, which is trading at 3-month lows, even lower.
The election bombshell comes just ahead of the Bank of Japan’s on Oct. 31. The BoJ is expected to maintain policy settings and will release updated growth and inflation forecasts. The BoJ has intervened in the past when the yen showed a sharp and quick decline and there is speculation that the central bank might intervene if the yen falls to 155 or 160 per dollar.
The US wrapped up the week with mixed results. Durable Goods Orders declined 0.8% in September, unchanged from a revised -0.8% reading in August and above the market estimate of -1%. The UoM Consumer Sentiment index improved slightly to 70.5 in October, above 70.1 in September, beating the market estimate of 69.0.
USD/JPY Technical
- USD/JPY continues to push through resistance lines. The next resistance line is 153.94
- 152.03 and 151.68 are providing support