ForexLive Asia Wrap: Yen gains ground as Government Ministers continue the jawboning

LDP Secretary General, Ishiba, said a Weaker Yen was worrisome for some industries Japan November Machine Orders had a big jump, coming in at +3.9% (Prior was +2.6%, and the well above market expectations at +0.3%) The Y/Y results for Japanese November Machine Orders came in at +0.3% (while prior was +1.2% and the market expected -7.3%) Japan December Domestic Corporate Goods Price +0.3% M/M (vs. Market expected +0.2%); while the Y/Y figure was -0.6% (vs. -0.9% prior and -0.7% expected) China December Actual FDI -4.5% Y/Y Australia December New Motor Vehicle Sales +2.2% M/M (Prior was flat) and +17.9% Y/Y (Prior result was +9.7%) Australia January Westpac/MI Consumer Confidence came in weak at +0.6% M/M (vs. -4.1% prior) Greek Banks gain access to Eurosystem The World Bank cut their outlook for global economic growth in 2013 Both of Japan's major airlines, All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines, grounded their entire fleets of Boeing 787s after an emergency landing in Japan today: lithium-ion batteries are the concern. Japan December Consumer Confidence 39.2 (vs. 39.4 prior) The mover in Asia again today was the Yen, with USD/JPY falling from around 88.80/85 in late New York to 88.06. There was some talk of buying to be done earlier on in the session, and indeed there was, but the offers held firm and it came steadily lower. The comments from Ishiba (see bullets, above) triggered further selling as the perception grew that the Abe government was now jawboning its satisfaction with the Yen level, or was at least trying to slow its fall by providing verbal support for it. It found some support from the 88.05/10 level, bouncing unconvincingly to 88.35/40. EUR/JPY lost ground with the lower USD/JPY, falling to 117. USD/JPY fell to 87.97 after the Tokyo lunch, and settled above the figure awaiting the European morning.. EUR/USD had a relatively quiet session, down around 20 points from its level in late new York. AUD/USD, too, was tightly range-bound.