LONDON: The yen was slightly weaker in early Asia on Thursday as investors noted little data on the calendar but with markets still focusing on the yuan, the Shanghai Composite Index, and the remnants of last night’s U.S. CPI and FOMC Minutes.
USD/JPY changed hands at 123.92, up 0/09%, while AUD/USD traded at 0.7349, up 0.01%.
The latest Federal Reserve meeting highlighted concern over the state of the global economy, driving markets to question the likelihood that the Fed will raise rates next month.
The minutes showed policymakers continued to express broad concerns about lagging inflation and the weak world economy even as the U.S. job market improved further. Market expectations for a Fed hike in September fell from one in two to roughly one in three after the minutes were published.
It looks like based on commodity prices, China, wages not really picking up, that [Fed officials] are not getting any closer to meeting their inflation target and seems like they’re probably not going to be willing to go in September” with a rate hike, said Don Ellenberger, head of multi-sector strategies at Federated Investors in Pittsburgh.
