Ella 
On Wednesday, the U.S. dollar/yen fluctuated higher, closing easily for the third consecutive day, as the U.S. dollar/yen narrowed its losses following its recent decline due to two suspected “yen intervention” by the Bank of Japan. The yen rebounded from multi-decade lows, but gains were limited as the currency returned to weakness across the board.
U.S. economic data this week is quite light, with only secondary economic data released before the University of Michigan Consumer Confidence Index is released on Friday. The University of Michigan survey of consumer economic expectations in May is expected to fall to 76.0 from 77.2 the previous month. In March, the University of Michigan consumer confidence survey hit a two-and-a-half-year high of 79.4.
The Bank of Japan neither confirmed nor denied that it carried out two monetary interventions on the Japanese yen last week. However, market participants pointed out that the Bank of Japan’s market operation report seriously exceeded expectations. In the first half of last week, the Bank of Japan’s various financing operations exceeded expenditures by approximately 9 billion yen.
Economic events remain relatively light for the rest of the week, with USD/JPY traders looking ahead to another round of U.S. inflation data next week and the latest gross domestic product (GDP) growth data from Japan early next Thursday.
