ForexLive Asia wrap: Yen stronger ahead of the G20 meeting starting today

Data: New Zealand Q4 Retail Sales +2.1% (vs. +1.4% was expected). This was a big jump above expectations. News: Abe is said to be close to deciding on his nomination for next BOJ Governor. Toshiro Muto and Kazumasa Iwata are the two front-runners, with unnamed newswire ‘sources' today placing Muto as the slight favourite There were plenty of comments out of Japan today: Japan's Economy Minister Amari was first up, contradicting his weekend statement (on a Nikkei target of 17,000) by saying that the government has no target for the stockmarket The LDP's Kozo Yamamoto was next, saying that a rate of 95 -100 yen per dollar is appropriate There was also chatter in the market of an already-prepared draft communiqué from the G20 meeting (it hasn't started yet …) which did not single out any individual country or currency. If this was the result it would make Japan happy (and Switzerland, but no-one seems to be too fussed about their blatant manipulation of the franc). RBA Board member John Edwards said the Australian dollar is “incredibly high” The big mover (relatively speaking) today was yen again, continuing with the strength it found in the New York afternoon. Any yen-bearish comments were met with immediate USD/JPY jumps but these were never sustained for more than a few minutes with sellers quickly swarming in each time. USD/JPY  goes into very early Europe as I type below 92.40 and looking like its more of the same (sell USD/JPY jumps) coming. NZD/USD blasted through overnight highs on the release of much better than expected Q4 Retail Sales figure (see bullets, above). The highs were not sustained, though, kiwi falling back to support around 0.8500. The comment from Edwards of the RBA saw a quick 20 point drop in the AUD (1.03555/60 to 1.0340/45) which it then spent the rest of the session retracing and before moving to a marginal new high above 1.0370. As I type the aussie is in the 1.0360/65 area. EUR/USD had a dead day, in a 15 point range. Lets hope Europe can do something with it.