Japanese media confirm last week's FX intervention

Japanese media, precisely TV Tokyo, informed that Japan has intervened in the FX market last week. Report is based on information from anonymous Japanese government official. According to TV Tokyo source, Japan intervened twice last week. Taking a look at USDJPY chart at H1 interval, it is easy to when those two interventions may have taken place.

The first intervention seems to have taken place on Monday, April 29 between Tokyo session close and London session open. This is a strong hint that it was indeed an intervention as it was done outside of the most active market hours, with low volatility usually helping magnify the move. Another sharp move lower on the hourly chart can be spotted on Wednesday, May 1 in the evening. It should be noted that there was a FOMC decision on May 1 and it could have influenced market moves. However, a sharp move lower on USDJPY occurred after 9:00 pm BST, so over 2 hours after FOMC announced its decision.

USDJPY moved lower following media headlines, but scale of this move was rather small. The pair is now retesting the 200-hour moving average (purple line) as a support after breaking above it earlier today. This is the first time the pair broke above this hurdle in a week.

Source: xStation5