Futures Nudge Higher Overnight, Kuroda in View

JBM3 added 7 ticks in overnight trade, with a light bid coming through on the back of softer than expected U.S. labour market data and weakness in U.S. equities that was inspired by worry re: the banking sector. There could be some further follow through on the Tokyo open, but local event risk may negate spill over from global matters.

• In local news, late Thursday revealed that Japan's largest group of trade unions (covering 240K employees) had secured a pay rise agreement of ~5.3%, which results in positive real wage movement, assuming there isn’t a second-round shunt higher in inflation. The overall outcome of the shunto wage negotiations remains key for the BoJ policy outlook.
• Household spending data has come down on the soft side of expectations, with PPI due shortly. Still, it will be the latest BoJ decision that headlines today (see our full preview of that event here).
• A quick reminder that some pre-BoJ adjustment seemed to trigger JGB futures selling and payside swap flow into the close on Thursday.