Asian session: The yen fell

00:00 China Bank holiday April

05:00 Japan Leading Economic Index February 95.0 97.2 97.5

05:00 Japan Coincident Index February 91.6 91.9 92.1

05:00 Japan BoJ monthly economic report April

The yen fell to its weakest since August 2009 as investors speculated the Bank of Japan’s 7.5 trillion yen ($77.4 billion) of monthly bond purchases will devalue the currency. Traders yesterday sold the yen after the BOJ’s bond-buying program beat the median 5.2 trillion yen estimated by economists surveyed by Bloomberg. BOJ officials also temporarily suspended a cap on some bond holdings and dropped a limit on debt maturities at the two-day meeting, the first to be led by Kuroda since he took office last month.

The yen’s drop may become like an “avalanche,” billionaire investor George Soros said after BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda yesterday exceeded analysts’ estimates in announcing stimulus measures to spur annual inflation to 2 percent in two years. Soros said Japan’s policies are “really quite dangerous” because if people realize the yen’s sharp slide is liable to continue and want to put money abroad, that could create an “avalanche,” speaking today in an interview on CNBC. “Japan was dying a slow death for 25 years and woke up.”

The dollar headed for weekly losses against most major counterparts before a report forecast to show U.S. job growth slowed last month. A report from the U.S. Labor Department today may show employers added 190,000 workers to payrolls in March following a 236,000 gain the month before, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey. The jobless rate is projected to hold at 7.7 percent, matching February’s four-year low.

EUR / USD: during the Asian session, the pair traded in the range of $1.2920-35.

GBP / USD: during the Asian session, the pair traded in the range of $1.5215-40.

USD / JPY: during the Asian session, the pair rose to Y97.20.

EZ retail sales due for release at 0900GMT and Germany factory orders at 1000GMT and could provide some morning interest but this will be overshadowed by this afternoon's US employment report. BOE Spencer Dale due to speak at 0800GMT, followed by the release at 0830GMT of BOE Financial Policy committee Minutes, provides the morning's domestic interest but this will be overshadowed by this afternoon's release of key US jobs data.