On Tuesday afternoon, the USD/JPY pair is trading to the downside as the market is analyzing the statistics.
The Japanese Yen is strengthening against the USD on Tuesday. The current quote for the instrument is 110.98.
Today’s statistics published by Japan indicated that the Retail Sales added 3.2% y/y in April after expanding by 2.1% y/y the month before and against the expected reading of 2.2% y/y. Large-scale retail chains also recovered as the sales in April increased by 1.1% y/y after losing 0.8% y/y in March.
The Unemployment Rate in the country remained unchanged in April, at 2.8%. However, expectations were the same and didn’t imply any changes.
The Japanese Household Spending continued to decline and was -1.4% y/y, although it was expected to recover up to -0.7% y/y. It appears that the indicator is falling as compared to March (-1.3% y/y). It’s not a very good signal, because the Household Spending is used in fundamental analysis as a leading economic indicator, describing consumer sentiment.
The Japanese Yen responds to the macroeconomic statistics in different ways, and when the numbers are quite mixed, the Yen usually gets stronger.
RoboForex Analytical Department