USD/JPY surrenders modest intraday gains to 143.00 after BoJ Tamura’s hawkish remarks

• USD/JPY attracts fresh sellers following an intraday gains to the 143.00 neighborhood. 
• BoJ Tamura’s hawkish remarks boost the JPY and exert downward pressure on the pair.
• A goodish pickup in the USD demand and the upbeat market mood lend some support.

The USD/JPY pair fails to capitalize on modest Asian session gains to the 143.00 neighborhood and for now, seems to have stalled its goodish recovery from a nearly nine-month low touched the previous day. Spot prices currently trade around the mid-143.00s, or the lower end of the daily range and seem vulnerable to prolonging the recent well-established downtrend witnessed over the past two months or so.

Despite further signs that consumer prices in the US are easing overall, the core CPI print indicated that the underlying inflation remains sticky and dashed hopes for an outsized, 50 basis points (bps) rate cut by the Federal Reserve (Fed) next week. This, in turn, assists the US Dollar (USD) to regain positive traction and climb back closer to the monthly peak. Apart from this, the risk-on impulse undermined the safe-haven Japanese Yen (JPY) and acted as a tailwind for the USD/JPY pair higher. 

The JPY was further weighed down by an unexpected decline in Japan’s Producer Price Index (PPI), by 0.2% in August. Adding to this, the yearly rate decelerated more than anticipated to 2.5% during the reported month from 3.0% in July. That said, comments by Bank of Japan (BoJ) board member Naoki Tamura, saying that the path towards ending the easy policy is still very long, reaffirms bets for a further rise in borrowing costs by the end of this year and helps limit losses for the JPY.

Furthermore, the markets have fully priced in a 25 bps Fed rate cut move at its upcoming policy meeting on September 17-18, marking a big divergence in comparison to a hawkish BoJ. This, in turn, prompts fresh selling around the USD/JPY pair and turns out to be a key factor behind the intraday pullback. Traders now look forward to the release of the US PPI for a fresh impetus, though the fundamental backdrop suggests that the path of least resistance for spot prices is to the downside.