Nikkei Targets All-Time Highs After 33 Years Despite Bank of Japan Shock
Last week, the Bank of Japan shocked markets by deciding to raise the yield curve tolerance range of the Japan 10-Year Treasury bond yield to 1%. This marked a significant step towards reversing years of ultra-accommodative monetary policy. However, Bank Governor Ueda emphasized that this move is just a correction, and their main focus remains to achieve sustained inflation.
If their words hold true in the coming months, the overall situation is unlikely to change, and the Japanese yen will continue to face selling pressure. As for Japan's main stock market index, Nikkei 225, not much has changed. It's probably going through a correction phase but still has the potential to continue its upward trend.
Over the past few decades, Bank of Japan officials have been worried about the persistently low inflation, occasionally dipping into deflationary territory with a few isolated spikes above 2%. With the outbreak of war in Ukraine, the rising global price dynamics have also affected Japan, leading to the highest levels of inflation in over 40 years.
Currently, both headline CPI and core remain above the inflation target, and the BOJ board has legitimate concerns that this might only be a temporary situation based on recent years' patterns.
Considering forecasts, although the median for 2023 was raised to 2.5% from 1.8%, the projections for 2024 were revised downward to 1.9%. This shows that with the stabilization of prices in global markets, the specter of disinflation or even deflation is real, so the BoJ's ultra-dish policy should be maintained despite Friday's revision.
The continuous printing of yen to buy securities is one of the main drivers of the Japanese stock market, where a wide stream of newly created currency is
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