Something is rotten in the state of Abenomics. The last three days have seen the biggest surge in JPY in over six weeks (now well under 98 and at its strongest again the USD in over a month) and the biggest drop in the Nikkei 225 in almost two months. It seems with Fed Taper talk off the table (in investors' minds), hotter than expected inflation in Japan (what they wanted but brings the 'endgame' closer for expectations of moar QQE), and a miss for retail sales in Japan tonight (no matter what they do, consumption disappoints - unsurprising given the demographic hurdle [6], even with free money oozing out of every crack) that global investors (who have once again piled lemming-like back into the long-Nikkei-short-JPY trades) have found better places (for now) to put their 'easily-earned' money. Or is this the Japanese markets' cry for help ahead of Kuroda's speech this evening [7]?
[8]
of course these kind of exaggerated moves should be no surprise given the swing back to full over-crowded status that the short JPY, long Nikkei trade appears to have taken on again...
[9]
It seems - for now - that US equities have overtaken Japanese stocks as the 'most-print-worthy shirts in the printing closet' - because we already know they aren't the cleanest (just ask Micro (earnings) [10] and Macro (GDP) data [11])...
Charts: Bloomberg and JPMorgan