Japanese Yen remains weak against US Dollar, Japan’s National CPI cools down

• The Japanese Yen trades vulnerably near its weekly low around 155.20 against the US Dollar.
• Soft Japan’s CPI data will likely weigh on hawkish BoJ expectations.
• FOMC Minutes showed that officials are not in a hurry to cut interest rates.

The Japanese Yen (JPY) shows weakness against the US Dollar (USD) during the Asian trading session on Friday. The USD/JPY pair holds onto gains near its weekly high of 155.20 posted on Thursday. The pair is under pressure as the US Dollar continues to outperform due to signals from Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) Minutes of the January policy meeting that officials see no rush for interest rate cuts, with inflation remaining persistently above the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) 2% target.

As of writing, the US Dollar Index (DXY), which gauges the Greenback’s value against six major currencies, trades firmly near the fresh three-week high of 98.00 posted on Thursday.

In Friday’s session, major triggers for the US Dollar will be the preliminary Q4 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the S&P Global Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) data for February, which will be released during the North American session.

Economists expect the US GDP to have risen at an annualized pace of 3% against the previous reading of 4.4%. S&P Global Composite PMI is estimated to have grown at a faster pace, supported by strong business activity in both the manufacturing and the services sector.

Though investors have underpinned the US Dollar against the Japanese Yen, the latter trades broadly stable even as Japan’s National Consumer Price Index (CPI) grew moderately in January.

Earlier in the day, the data showed that the headline CPI rose at an annualized pace of 1.5%, slower than 2.1% in December. National CPI ex. Fresh Food decelerated to 2%, as expected, from the previous reading of 2.4%. Cooling inflationary pressures in Japan could weigh on expectations of interest rate hikes by the Bank of Japan (BoJ) in the near term.