Dollar strikes back, Japan in spotlight

By Jamie McGeever

Aug 23 - A look at the day ahead in Asian markets.

Japanese inflation and monetary policy are under the spotlight in Asian trading on Friday, as a mood of nervous anticipation descends on world markets ahead of U.S. Fed Chair Jerome Powell's Jackson Hole speech later in the day.

U.S. stocks and bonds fell and the dollar rose on Thursday, a reversal of this week's moves that had seen the S&P 500 climb back toward its recent all-time high, the 10-year yield post its lowest close in over a year, and the dollar hit a 2024 low.

The S&P 500 on Thursday came within 0.5% of revisiting last month's record high but ended the day down 0.9%, while the Nasdaq lost 1.7%. Both were their steepest declines since the Aug. 5 volatility shock.

The MSCI emerging market currency index, meanwhile, fell 0.3% on Thursday - not a particularly big move on the face of it but, remarkably, its biggest decline in four months. With the dollar, yields and U.S. recession worries all rising, emerging market assets will be under pressure on Friday.

That's the backdrop to Asia's trading day, where the spotlight will fall on Japanese inflation figures and Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda's monetary policy testimony to lawmakers.

It will mark Ueda's first public comments since the central bank last month raised interest rates by a higher-than-expected 25 basis points. That, coupled with his hawkish post-decision press conference, helped stoke volatility in Japanese markets that ended up with a sharp unwind of yen carry trades and the Nikkei 225 index's biggest one-day fall since 1987.

The Nikkei has recovered all those losses and more, closing on Thursday at a three-week high. That's all the more impressive considering the yen has held onto to almost all its gains, and is still up more than 10% in the last six weeks.

Official figures are expected to show that annual core inflation ticked up in July to 2.7% from 2.6% on June. That would put inflation above the BOJ's 2% target for the 28th straight month, supporting BOJ officials' view that they should continue the move away from decades of ultra-easy policy.

Japan's economy expanded by a much faster-than-expected annualized 3.1% in the second quarter. In a Reuters poll published this week, 57% of the economists surveyed think the BOJ will raise rates again by the end of this year.

As well as Japanese inflation, the Asian calendar on Friday includes Singapore inflation and New Zealand retail sales data. Current market pricing suggests the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will be one of the most dovish G10 central banks, cutting rates 230 basis points by the end of next year.

Here are key developments that could provide more direction to Asian markets on Friday:

- Japan inflation

- BOJ Governor Ueda speaks

- Singapore inflation

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.