S&P 500 — US Large Cap Index
FTSE 100 — UK Blue Chips
Euro Stoxx 50 — Eurozone Leaders
DAX 40 — German Equities
CAC 40 — French Market Index
Nikkei 225 — Japan Benchmark
Hang Seng — Hong Kong Index
Shanghai Composite — China Mainland
ASX 200 — Australian Market
TSX Composite — Canada Index
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STI Index — Singapore Market
KOSPI — South Korea Index
Bovespa — Brazil Equities
JSE Top 40 — South Africa Index
IPC Index — Mexico Market
- Japanese Yen rises as BoJ’s Takata urged abandoning standard semi-annual 0.25% interest rate hikes.
- US Dollar struggles after August ADP private employment added only 38,000 positions versus 47,000 expected.
- Markets continue pricing a two-thirds Federal Reserve rate hike probability ahead of upcoming Nonfarm Payrolls.
USD/JPY extends its losses for the second consecutive day, trading around 156.80 during the European hours on Thursday.
Yen jump revives talk of fresh Japan intervention
Analysts at ING highlight that the “near 1% fall in USD/JPY over a couple of minutes yesterday afternoon, and another slide overnight, sparked talk of another round of intervention,” as the sharp moves in the pair rekindled market speculation over renewed action by Japan’s authorities.
The USD/JPY pair depreciates as the Japanese Yen (JPY) gains strength following hawkish remarks from Bank of Japan (BoJ) board member Hajime Takata, which prompted traders to reprice their monetary policy expectations.
Speaking on Wednesday, Takata emphasized that 2026 marks a structural regime change driven by global economic growth and AI-linked investments, requiring central banks to adopt a different policy response. He argued that the BoJ must move away from its conventional pace of semi-annual rate increases and consider a broader range of options beyond standard 0.25% incremental hikes.
Meanwhile, the US Dollar faces headwinds following economic data that revealed a sharp cooling in the domestic labor market. Figures from ADP indicated that US private-sector employment added just 38,000 jobs in August, falling short of the 47,000 positions projected by economists.
US policy seen mirroring China’s neo-mercantilist playbook
Rabobank’s strategists argue that US policy is increasingly echoing the very practices Washington has long criticised in Beijing. They highlight that “now we see the US Treasury engaging in exactly the sort of behaviour that China is accused of,” adding that this is “kind of the point”: in their view, the US believes it is “fighting fire with fire by copying the Chinese neo-mercantilist model.”
