Pound to Japanese Yen (GBP/JPY) Exchange Rate News – Sterling Resists Yen Advances

Pound to Japanese Yen exchange rate chart

While the Yen strengthened against almost all of its main currency counterparts overnight, the Pound managed to continue trading higher against its safe-haven Asian counterpart.

During Australasian trading the Yen advanced as mixed growth data from China and last week’s disappointing US consumer confidence report pushed investors towards lower-risk assets.

Sliding Asian stocks also lent the Yen strength.

However, the Pound was still riding high from last week’s impressive UK retail sales report and strengthened further as this morning’s Rightmove data showed an increase in British house prices.

The Yen was also slightly softer against Sterling as Japanese industrial production data showed a year-on-year increase of 4.8 per cent in November following a gain of 5.0 per cent in October.

Month-on-month, industrial production declined by 0.1 per cent.

Conversely, Japanese machine tool orders increased by 28.1 per cent in December, slightly more than November’s annual 28.0 per cent gain.

Meanwhile, GCI Financial said this of USD/JPY; ‘The pair is expected to find support at 103.82, and a fall through could take it to the next support level of 103.52. […] Amid a lack of major economic news in Japan, Yen traders are yet likely to shift their focus on the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy statement and its interest rate decision on Wednesday.’

Wednesday’s UK employment data is also likely to spark GBP/JPY movement, as will the publication of minutes from the Bank of England’s latest policy meeting.

In light of last week’s impressive surge in UK retail sales some industry experts are betting that the BoE will revise fiscal policy sooner rather than later, but given that the BoE meeting occurred shortly after the release of slightly disappointing construction and manufacturing data it will be interesting to see what stance the Monetary Policy Committee adopts.

Before the weekend US news could trigger currency market fluctuations. Any reports which support the case for the Federal Reserve tapering bond buying are likely to drive the US Dollar higher and economists expect Thursday’s initial jobless claims data to show improvement.