USD/JPY smashes 145.00 for the first time in 24 years as BOJ keeps policy unchanged

• USD/JPY has touched an intraday high above 145.00 on unchanged BOJ policy.
• The BOJ is highly expected to intervene in the currency market to support yen.
• Fed’s ultra-hawkish guidance has stabled the DXY above 111.00.

The USD/JPY pair has kissed the critical hurdle of 145.00 for the first time in the past 24 years as the Bank of Japan (BOJ) has kept the interest rates unchanged. A dovish stance was highly expected from the BOJ as it has been failing in spurting the growth rate and inflation. The interest rate is stable at -0.1% despite continuous depreciation in the Japanese yen.

Japan’s officials have been worrying over the steep depreciation of yen against the remaining G-7 currencies. Earlier, the Japanese government was delighted with the weaken yen as it was accelerating its exports and tourism industry.

Now, the nose-diving yen is becoming a headache for the economy. Companies that are highly dependent on inputs purchased from other countries are facing currency risk. This has scaled up their production costs and has trimmed their operating margins significantly. Therefore, the firms are forced to trim the usage of entire production capacities.

Apart from that, the BOJ was planning to intervene in currency markets to support yen as they believe that the current price doesn’t justify the fundamentals.

Also, Japan’s former Vice FM Tatsuo Yamasaki cited that the Japanese administration is ready to intervene in currency markets at any moment if needed, news wires from Bloomberg. He further added that the government doesn’t need to wait for a green light from the US to support yen.

Meanwhile, the US dollar index (DXY) is established comfortably above 111.00 after the hawkish guidance from the Federal Reserve (Fed). Fed chair Jerome Powell has provided an extremely hawkish roadmap to achieve the objective of price stability. The Fed sees interest rates making top at 4.6%.