USD/JPY climbs on Friday, aiming for 148.50

The USD/JPY pair is recovering on Friday into the top end of the week’s trading. The Bank of Japan maintained its negative rate policy regime, as markets broadly expected.

On the data front, the US PMIs came in mixed, capping any decisive moves for the US dollar. The USD/JPY is set to close out the trading week just south of the 148.50 level after peaking at an intraday high of 148.40 as the dollar covers its bids on a mixed Purchasing Manager Index (PMI) reading. The pair is trading at 148.26 at the time of writing.

The Bank of Japan kept the bottom band of its main policy rate at -0.1% early on Friday, which shook off some bullish momentum for the Yen. US S&P Global Manufacturing PMI improves to 48.9, Services PMI declines to 50.2 in September

Yen bulls found little love from the BoJ on Friday as the Japanese central bank reaffirmed its easy monetary policy stance until they see Japanese inflation maintaining 2% “in a stable manner”. Inflation in the Japanese economy is on the high end for the time being, but price growth is expected to decline appreciably in the coming months, and the BoJ continues to be far off of a hawkish policy change.

US PMI figures came in somewhere in the middle, with manufacturing showing a minor improvement and services backsliding.

The US S&P Global Manufacturing PMI jumped further than expected, printing at 48.9 versus the expected 48, but the Services component missed to the downside, printing at 50.2 compared to the forecast 50.6. The mixed printing helped prop up the Greenback against the Yen, but kept gains restrained within the previous day’s highs.