The Japanese Yen (JPY) remains on the front foot against its American counterpart through the Asian session on Monday, with the USD/JPY pair holding just above the lowest level since October touched in the aftermath of weaker US jobs report on Friday.
Data released during the Asian session on Monday showed that the base pay in Japan surged to a 32-year high in January, while real cash earnings fell 1.8% on the back of persistent inflation.
This comes on top of a growing confidence that bumper wage hikes seen last year will continue this year and backs the case for further interest rate hikes by the Bank of Japan (BoJ), which, in turn, is seen underpinning the JPY.
Meanwhile, hawkish BoJ expectations continue to push Japanese government bond (JGB) yields higher. The resultant narrowing of the rate differential in Japan and other countries turns out to be another factor driving flows toward the lower-yielding JPY.
Apart from this, persistent worries about the potential economic fallout from US President Donald Trump's trade policies and a global trade war further underpin the JPY's relative safe-haven status.
Furthermore, the growing acceptance that the Federal Reserve (Fed) will cut interest rates multiple times this year keeps the US Dollar (USD) depressed near a multi-month low and further weighs on the USD/JPY pair.
Source: FXStreet