USD/JPY: Dollar Hungry for Even More Gains with Rate Beyond ¥155 Ahead of BoJ Meeting

Greenback is all the game in forex town, especially against the battered Japanese yen. Dollar-yen is now after the ¥156.00 mark.

• The USDJPY pair is on the hunt for fresh gains Thursday morning. The dollar extended its aggressive upside swing beyond ¥155.00. Now that the psychological milestone is in the rearview mirror — and nothing happened — dollar bulls are taking aim at ¥156.00. Earlier today, the exchange rate hit a fresh 34-year high of ¥155.75. The gain train doesn’t have a final destination — it’s making progress until someone stops it.
• From Japan, officials have said they’re carefully monitoring the yen and are ready to step in with a huge buy position in case speculation spiraled out of control. The weaker the yen becomes, the higher the chance of intervention. A weak yen is good for exports, but bad for imports and the Bank of Japan now needs to make a choice.
• Japan’s central bank is meeting Friday to discuss what to do with the interest rate. At their previous meeting, policymakers exited a yearslong regime of negative interest rates and hiked borrowing costs for the first time since 2007. Now, markets are pricing in a rate hold at 0.1%. But won’t that knock the yen even more? Any surprises and the dollar-yen pair might get volatile fast.