ForexLive Asian Wrap Mon. 26Nov2012: Catalonia, the BOJ and Shirakawa today

Minutes of the bank of Japan's October 30 Monetary Policy meeting were released, with no surprises. The BOJ will continue 'powerful easing' Economy seen as weak Should be no limit to lending facility After drifting higher in pre-Tokyo, USD/JPY traded above 82.60, EUR/JPY above 107 after the release of the minutes. The elections in Catalonia produced a majority for a coalition seeking an independence referendum, but not an overwhelming mandate, while simultaneously delivering a reduced number of seats to the independence-supporting current ruling party led by Artur Mas. Some media viewed this as a win for the separatists, some viewed it as a set back. What's for sure is that Mas now must haggle to form a coalition government (conservative CiU with leftist ERC ... good luck with that): Catalan election weakens bid for independence from Spain (Reuters) Catalonia election recap from MNI Divisive Election in Spain's Catalonia Gives Win to Separatist Parties Going toward Tokyo lunch saw the release of BOJ Head Masaaki Shirakawa's Nagoya speech, with USD/JPY testing buy orders ForexLive had alerted readers to earlier; newswires carried comments that were on-script, there was nothing surprising - USD/JPY nevertheless reacted by jumping 10+ points to the mid 82.30s: BOJ concerned about negative impacts of strong Yen Powerful easing has had some effect in keeping Yen rise in check Worsening Japan-China relations likely to have effect on exports in Oct-Dec Quarter BOJ to continue easing until inflation goal in sight Monetary policy one way to influence currency market   Apart from the action in the JPY crosses, currency markets were very quiet today; EUR/USD, & Cable saw the USD a little stronger from Friday's NY close, while USD/CAD, AUD/USD and NZD/USD were all barely changed. Australian PM Gillard addressed, and answered questions from, the media about Union legal activities 17 years ago - this was a rehash of an August press conference addressing the same issues. Old news. NZ PM Key gave his regular weekly media briefing - nothing of much interest to currency traders.