The Yen is changing direction again. Overview for 18.10.2018

On Thursday morning, USDJPY is trading downwards; investors need “safe haven” assets again.

The Japanese yen is getting stronger against the USD on Thursday morning. The current quote for the instrument is 112.50.

Japan published several macroeconomic reports today, which may seem really interesting. The Import added 7.0% y/y in September after expanding by 15.3% y/y the month before. The Export dropped 1.2% y/y after increasing by 6.6% y/y in August and against the expected reading of +1.9% y/y. This is the first time the indicator has fallen since November 2016.

The current decline may indicate the same for the Japanese GDP in the third quarter.

The components of the report show that vehicles export to the USA lost 7.0% y/y. In general, sales from Japan to the USA decreased by 0.2% y/y due to drops in transport equipment, motor vehicles, and scientific and optical instruments.

The USA are still monitoring Japan due to the absence of trade agreement between two countries. Earlier, the USA representatives said that the Japanese market was very important, but not efficient for the American export. The USA still haven’t decided on increasing import duties for Japanese goods, but there is a possible scenario, which implies that the US government might do the same as they did to China.