The BoJ's two-day meeting which begins on Tuesday is likely to
attract a good deal more attention than usual. Not only has government
pressure on the BoJ intensified in recent weeks, but a number of press
articles have speculated that the policy board is poised to introduce
additional steps aimed at running an even looser form of monetary
policy.
The 3m loan facility introduced at December's emergency BoJ meeting
remains the centre of attention, with suggestions that the ceiling on
the facility could be doubled from ¥10 tn to ¥20 tn, or that the
maturity of loans offered could be extended from three to six months.
The alleged intention is to lower front end yields in a bid to both
stimulate domestic lending and to weaken the yen, and thereby reduce
deflationary pressures in the economy.
Finally, key to the FX consequences of any decision will be the
reaction of front-end yields. With these already so close to the policy
rate of 0.1%, significant additional yield compression
looks somewhat unlikely. Although USDJPY could rise substantially on
the news that policy is being eased further, without the fundamental
underpinnings of a wider US-Japan yield differential, any excessive
gains in the pair are likely to be short-lived.
This scenario plays into our long only AUDJPY buying strategy.
Chris Lori Workshop
April 16-18
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Blog Source: UBS, Bloomberg, Chris Lori