Yen stalls at 160.00 on Tokyo's warning ahead of Japan's growth data

The 160.00 level, where Japan has bought Yen twice this year, was reached on Thursday for the first time since early September, and USD/JPY didn't stay above it. The session high was just over the level and the pair is trading just under it, almost exactly where it started. Wednesday's jump out of its range was the last move of any size.

Japan's Vice Finance Minister for International Affairs Mimura said on Thursday that recent moves were too rapid and that the summer's intervention shouldn't be forgotten. Japan spent a record JPY 15.4 trillion from July 30 to August 3, and the New York Fed confirmed on Thursday that the US Treasury bought Yen in the third quarter. That operation took the pair from near 164.00 to near 155.00, and it's now within about four Yen of where it began.

A Fed hike on December 9 is fully priced, and the 10-year Treasury yield rose to about 5.12% on Thursday after weak demand at a 30-year auction. The Dollar gained on the Euro, the Pound and the Kiwi. The Bank of Japan (BoJ) rate is 1.25% against the Fed's 3.75%-4.00%, and USD/JPY was the pair that didn't move.

On the calendar

New York Fed President Williams speaks at 23:30 GMT on Thursday. Friday's US producer price release at 13:30 GMT is forecast to show a 0.4% monthly rise after 1.3%, which bears on how large the Fed's December hike is.

Japan's preliminary third-quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is due at 23:50 GMT on Sunday, forecast up 0.1% on the quarter after 0.4%. BoJ board member Takata, who voted for a hike on October 30, speaks at 04:00 GMT on Monday, and October national inflation follows at 23:30 GMT on Thursday, November 19. All three come before the BoJ's December 18 decision, where a hike is widely expected.

On the charts

Wednesday's rise broke the pair out of the 157.00-159.00 band that had held it since late September. It has now recovered about three-fifths of the fall from the late-July high to the September low near 153.00. Thursday's bar is a narrow one, with a low just under 159.50 and its first and latest prices almost identical.

USD/JPY daily chart