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market analysis
The Japanese yen exchange rate faces a key game, and the Liberal Democratic Party’s victory may increase the risk of intervention
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Hello everyone, today XM Forex will bring you "[XM Foreign Exchange Decision Analysis]: The Japanese yen exchange rate faces a key game, and the Liberal Democratic Party's victory may increase the risk of intervention." Hope this helps you! The original content is as follows:
As Japan’s February 8 general election approaches, the market’s attention to the trend of the yen continues to increase. Multiple polls show that the Liberal Democratic Party and its ruling coalition are expected to win an overwhelming victory. This result will not only reshape Japan's domestic political landscape, but may also have a profound impact on the yen exchange rate through expected changes in fiscal and monetary policies.
Currently, the U.S. dollar has approached the 160 mark against the yen many times. Against the background of the gradual "return to normalization" of the Japanese economy and the slow normalization of monetary policy, the yen is standing at a critical node between trend continuation and policy intervention.
Political and policy background: Stabilizing expectations strengthens "high market trading"
Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae dissolved the Diet early and held an election. The core purpose is to consolidate the foundation of governance and obtain public authorization. If the Liberal Democratic Party wins a big victory as polls indicate, the market expects that resistance to its policy advancement will be significantly reduced.
In the foreign exchange market, this kind of political stability tends to strengthen the so-called "high trade" - that is, the market tends to expect more active fiscal policy, a slower pace of monetary tightening, and Japan's continued low-yield environment amid global capital flows. This www.xmtraders.combination is not good for the Japanese yen.
The Japanese yen exchange rate may usher in a long-short game at the 160 mark
Since the beginning of this year, the fluctuations in the exchange rate of the US dollar against the Japanese yen have increased significantly, and this trend is expected to continue. The core judgment of the current market is that Japan is still in a negative real policy interest rate environment, fiscal challenges are becoming increasingly prominent, and global investors prefer procyclical and high-yield currencies. These factors together continue to suppress the Japanese yen.
On January 23, the US dollar against the yen fluctuated violently near the 160 mark, and the market was once skeptical.Japanese authorities have intervened. Subsequently, there was news that the Federal Reserve had launched an interest rate review operation, which briefly boosted the trend of the yen. However, U.S. officials subsequently denied involvement, and the relevant economic data released by Japan were also controversial. The market even began to question whether the authorities had actually implemented direct intervention.
In terms of intervention methods, the market speculates that some of Japan’s government-influenced pension funds may provide implicit support for the yen through strategic asset allocation adjustments. This approach is similar to the strategy adopted by South Korea when the won was approaching the 1,500 mark against the US dollar.
If the Liberal Democratic Party wins an overwhelming victory in this election, relevant policies are expected to further push up the USD/JPY exchange rate, and the exchange rate does not rule out testing the 160-162 range again. Japanese officials have made it clear many times that they are dissatisfied with this exchange rate level. Although the depreciation of the yen is beneficial to export www.xmtraders.companies, as the government is trying to ease the cost pressure on people's livelihood, continued depreciation will push up the price of imported goods and weaken the effect of the policy.
Therefore, the market generally believes that the Japanese authorities will maintain a high degree of vigilance in the 160-162 range and take currency market intervention measures when necessary.
Why may the intervention effect be limited?
Historical experience shows that successful exchange rate intervention usually requires two prerequisites:
First, there are extreme, one-way speculative positions in the market;
Second, there is a clear reversal in macro fundamentals.
In July 2024, the currency market intervention implemented by the Japanese authorities had a significant effect precisely because the speculative market's short position on the yen was at an extreme level at that time, and at the same time, the Federal Reserve was approaching the start of an interest rate cut cycle. In September of the same year, after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 50 basis points, the dollar against the yen fell sharply from around 160 to 140 within two months.
But the current environment is obviously different. The speculative market's short position on the yen is far from reaching the extreme levels in 2024, and the Federal Reserve's federal funds rate is close to the neutral range of 3.75%, and there is limited room for short-term U.S. bond interest rates to fall further. In this context, Japan's intervention alone is difficult to trigger a reversal of the trend of the US dollar against the yen.
In other words, if the exchange rate rises again, the intervention of the Japanese authorities is more likely to act as a "decelerator" rather than truly reversing the direction.
Judgment of the exchange rate range during the year: mainly shocks, upward risks remain
Based on the current political and macro environment, the market expects that if the poll results are accurate and the Liberal Democratic Party successfully wins the election, there will still be further upward risks in the short term against the US dollar against the yen, and it may repeatedly test the 160 mark.
From a time perspective, the U.S. dollar against the yen is likely to remain within the 155-160 range in the first half of this year. If the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates by about 50 basis points as expected during the year, the U.S. dollar's interest rate advantage will be somewhat reduced, and the U.S. dollar against the yen may gradually fall back to around 150 by the end of the year. However, risks to the exchange rate remained clearly skewed to the upside during the quarter.
In addition, Japan has pledged to invest US$550 billion in capital in the United States.The financial arrangements are not yet www.xmtraders.completely clear. There is still uncertainty as to whether the relevant funds will be raised in U.S. dollar instruments or involve foreign exchange market operations, which also adds additional variables to the outlook for the yen.
Conclusion: The core contradiction of the Japanese yen has not yet been resolved
Overall, the Japanese election is more like strengthening rather than changing the current exchange rate logic. Political stability, fiscal expansion expectations and the "slow pace" of monetary policy normalization jointly constitute the structural background for the yen to continue to be under pressure.
Before there is a clear reversal in fundamentals, the yen’s rebound space will still be limited, and the policy game near the 160 mark may become the core focus of the foreign exchange market in the www.xmtraders.coming months.
The above content is all about "[XM Foreign Exchange Decision Analysis]: The Japanese yen exchange rate faces a key game, the victory of the Liberal Democratic Party may increase the risk of intervention". It is carefully www.xmtraders.compiled and edited by the editor of XM Foreign Exchange. I hope it will be helpful to your trading! Thanks for the support!
Due to the author's limited ability and time constraints, some contents in the article still need to be discussed and studied in depth. Therefore, in the future, the author will conduct extended research and discussion on the following issues:
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