Yen Declines As Intervention Risk Rises; BoJ Meeting In Focus

(RTTNews) - The Japanese yen weakened against other major currencies in the Asian session on Thursday, as market speculate the Japanese authorities is likely to intervene the foreign exchange market to prop up the yen ahead of the BOJ policy meeting.

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) will start its two-day rate-setting meeting later in the day. The central bank is expected to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged.

Traders also await the U.S. Fed meeting on April 30 to May 1, with the central bank widely expected to keep rates unchanged.

In economic news, data from the Cabinet Office showed that the Japan's leading index improved to the highest level in one-and-a-half years as initially estimated in February. The leading index, which measures future economic activity, rose to 111.8 in February from 109.5 in the previous month. That was in line with the flash data published on April 5.

Meanwhile, the coincident index, measures the current economic situation, dropped to 111.6 from 112.3 a month ago. In the initial estimate, the score was 110.9.

The safe-haven yen traded lower against its major rivals on Wednesday. In the Asian trading today, the yen declined to a 34-year low of 155.75 against the U.S. dollar, a 16-year low of 166.80 against the euro and a 9-year low of 194.25 against the pound, from yesterday's closing quotes of 155.34, 166.17 and 193.57, respectively. If the yen extends its downtrend, it is likely to find support around 157.00 against the greenback, 168.00 against the euro and 196.00 against the pound.

The yen dropped to a 6-day low of 170.39 against the Swiss franc, from yesterday's closing value of 169.71. On the downside, 172.00 is seen as the next support level for the yen.

Against Australia, the New Zealand and the Canadian dollars, the yen slipped to nearly a 10-year low of 101.41, nearly a 2-month low of 92.56 and a 17-year low of 113.78 from Wednesday's closing quotes of 100.92, 92.19 and 113.33, respectively. The yen is likely to find support around 102.00 against the aussie, 93.00 against the kiwi and 114.00 against the loonie.

Looking ahead, U.K. Confederation of British Industry is set to release Distributive Trades survey results for April at 6:00 am ET in the European session.

In the New York session, U.S. weekly jobless claims, core PCE prices and GDPP data for the first quarter, wholesale inventories for March, pending home sales for March and U.S. Fed Bank of Kansas manufacturing index for March are slated for release.