Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: USD/JPY cracks 155

• Canada February retail sales -0.1% vs +0.1% expected
• Atlanta Fed Q1 GDPNow 2.7% vs 2.9% prior
• BOC Minutes: Agreed taht any monetary policy easing would probably be gradual
• Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says he’s suspending public duties
• US sells $70 billion of five-year notes at a high yield of 4.659%
• EIA weekly US oil inventories -6368K vs +825K expected
• David EInhorn (Greenlight Capital) says investors don’t care about value investing

Markets:

• WTI crude oil down 40-cents to $82.92
• US 10-year yields up 4.8 bps to 4.66%
• GOld flat at $2321
• S&P 500 flat
• AUD leads, JPY lags

Another big round number has given way in USD/JPY and marked a fresh high dating back to 1990. The market was flirting with 155 in Asia and early European trading and then finally broke through at the start of US trading. It was helped by earlier comments from an LDP official that they weren’t currently contemplating intervention. The initial probe above 155.00 was shortlived but the retracement held at 154.75 and there was no sign of a real fight. So a second push came later, taking it as high as 155.37.

The Canadian dollar was also lively following a weaker February and March advance retail sales report. The numbers suggest a weakening consumer and that helped boost the pair by 40 pips to 1.3725.

However there was a late-day slide in the US dollar that helped to lift the pound to a session high and the euro back to unchanged. That came despite a broader rise in sovereign yields. That was something of a curious move that appeared to originate in Europe and included a 13 bps rise in Italian 10s. Those moves did fade some what later in the day, in part due to an ok US 5-year sale. Tomorrow we get 7s to round out the weekly slate.

More importantly will be tomorrow’s US GDP report and weekly initial jobless claims data.

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.