Data & BoJ Speak Eyed Today, Countdown To Election Starts

USD/JPY extended its losing streak to three days in a row Monday, driven lower by broad-based greenback weakness. It is hard to point to any single catalyst behind USD sales, but pre-positioning/profit taking ahead of Friday's NFP report may have worked against the dollar.

• Fumio Kishida took office as Japan's 100th Prime Minister and pledged to call a general election for Oct 31. The line-up of his Cabinet suggested that nominations were motivated by Kishida's attempt to reward allies who helped him win the party leadership race, while promoting some younger LDP lawmakers.
• Outgoing FinMin Aso told reporters that he had once proposed lowering the BoJ's 2% inflation target. His successor is his brother-in-law and a like-minded member of his faction within the LDP.
• Tokyo CPI will hit the wires at the bottom of the hour, with final Japanese Jibun Bank Services PMI due later in the day. Elsewhere, BoJ Kuroda will speak at the TCFD Summit 2021.
• Looking further afield, Kuroda will make another appearance on Thursday, when he speaks at the branch managers' meeting. Japan's earnings/spending data and BoP current account balance will be published on Friday.
• USD/JPY last seen at Y110.94, virtually unchanged on the day. Bears see Aug 11 high of Y110.80 as their initial target and a break here would open up Aug 16 & 15 lows of Y110.11. Bulls look for a rebound above Sep 30 high of Y112.08 towards Feb 20, 2020 high of Y112.23.