The dollar is declining in comparison to the Japanese Yen on Tuesday, but is little changed against the Euro and the pound sterling. The Bank of Japan decided not to expand its stimulus measures and upgraded its view of the economy.
The Bank of Japan on Tuesday decided to retain its target of doubling the monetary base in two years, but stopped short of announcing any new steps to curb bond market volatility. Meanwhile, the central bank upgraded its view of the economy.
The BoJ said its money market operations will continue to target an expansion of monetary base at an annual pace of JPY 60-70 trillion, as announced in April. The decision to keep the easing plan intact was unanimous.
The policy board of the Bank of Japan discussed the extension of fund-supplying operations from the current one year, but assessed that there is no immediate need at this stage, Governor Haruhiko Kuroda told a news conference on Tuesday.
The dollar has pulled back from yesterday’s high of Y99.275 against the Japanese Yen on Tuesday, to around Y97.000.
Confidence among Japanese businesses improved in the April-June quarter, results of a survey conducted by the Ministry of Finance and the Cabinet Office revealed Tuesday. The index measuring sentiment among firms with a capital of JPY 1 billion or more increased to 5.9 in April-June from 1 in January-March.
The M2 money stock in Japan was up 3.4 percent on year in May, the Bank of Japan said on Tuesday, standing at 843.8 trillion yen. That missed forecasts for an increase of 3.5 percent following the downwardly revised gain of 3.2 percent in April.
The success of the bond-purchase program of the European Central Bank will have no impact on the ruling whether the measure was constitutional or not, the German Constitutional Court said on Tuesday.
Germany’s highest court in Karlsruhe is holding a two-day hearing to decide whether the ECB’s bond buying program called the Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) violates the German law.
The buck is trading in a range around the $1.3275 level against the Euro on Tuesday.
The greenback is also little changed in comparison to the pound sterling Tuesday. The U.S. currency climbed to around $1.5520, but has since retreated to around $1.5575.
U.K. industrial production recoded moderate growth in April, contradicting market expectations for stagnation, as strong performance by the mining sector more than offset a contraction in the manufacturing sector.
Data added to hopes that the gradual recovery that started in the first quarter is gaining momentum. Production rose for the third consecutive month, while factory output fell for the first time in three months.
Industrial production moved up 0.1 percent sequentially in April after gaining 0.7 percent in March, the Office for National Statistics said Tuesday. Economists had forecast neither growth nor decline.
A gauge of house prices in the UK rose to its highest level in three years in May, suggesting that government’s policies to revive the property market have started to pay off, results of a survey by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) showed Tuesday. The RICS house price balance rose to 5 in May from 1 in April. This was the highest reading since June 2010.
Wholesale inventories in the U.S. rose in line with economist estimates in the month of April, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday. The report said wholesale inventories edged up by 0.2 percent in April following a revised 0.3 percent increase in March. The modest growth matched economist estimates.