Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mishedlo who wrote (10907)	3/28/2004 6:30:37 PM
From: russwinter	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 110194

This BOJ report really has me scratching my head, as I think (if true) it is a VERY big deal. Given the level of intervention and bond market manipulation, this can only mean one thing: higher interest rates. The market though, really until Friday, was yawning. Do they (and you) really think this prospect is not for real, or doesn't have elements of reality in it? Is everybody really that off-side? On another matter, I think the recent tenor of comments coming out of the Fed seems, how shall I put it, more hawkish. As a self professed worthless "Fed watcher" (they are from Venus, I'm from Mars, or is that Earth?)I may be missing something in the translation, but? The chief wizards have been kind of quiet, and you are hearing more ass covering "inflation awareness" talk out of other governors and more and more commentators (not just Steve Roach and Russ Winter). But again, Fed funds trendmacro.com and Eurodollar futures have barely budged, as if the old playbook is still on. The next week going into the Friday labor numbers will be interesting. On the labor situation, here is the DTS number through Thursday: wages and salaries are up a decent 2.4% yoy. I'm not going to interpret this one way or the other, especially since March, 2003 was the Iraq War month, and a rebound should be in order. April and May should be more revealing. Still, it doesn't suggest an especially weak employment number. Japan ends yen-dlr currency intervention-paper Sunday March 28, 5:43 PM EST LONDON, March 28 (Reuters) - Japan's 150-billion-pound ($273 billion) campaign to weaken the yen and strengthen the dollar has officially come to an end, the Times newspaper reported, citing sources at the Bank of Japan. The currency intervention campaign, which has provoked criticism in Washington and deep concern in London, is thought by Japanese officials to be no longer necessary because the country's economic recovery is gathering strength, the London Times newspaper reported in its March 29 edition. BOJ sources said that they would intervene in the markets only when there was extraordinary volatility, but made clear that the unprecedented dollar purchases of the past seven months were formally over, the paper reported. The BOJ and Japan's Ministry of Finance will no longer buy dollars even to smooth out the sort of sudden price spikes that have prompted intervention in the past, it added. "Even if the market shows volatility, we believe that things are not so fragile now," the BOJ sources said, in what the paper describes as an exclusive briefing. "We have reached the point where we are confident that the Japanese recovery no longer depends on export strength ... the interventions have served their purpose," the sources added. The dollar was last quoted at 105.35 at 2230 GMT. The intervention drive to support the falling dollar against the yen began in earnest last September, and has left Japan with paper trading losses of more than 50 billion pounds, the paper said. The end of intervention has apparently been brought about by Toshihiko Fukui, the BOJ governor, who has restored confidence in the Japanese economy since his appointment a year ago and won plaudits from international financial authorities for his deft monetary management, the paper said. ($1=.5502 Pound) ©2004 Reuters Limited.