Rinban Tweaked, Narrow Morning Trade

JGB futures hit the lunchbreak at unchanged levels vs. yesterday's settlement, holding tight ranges, with the belly seeing some marginal underperformance in cash trade.

• The BoJ delivered the expected Y50bn cuts to the purchase sizes of both of the 1-3 & 3-5 Year Rinban buckets, which was in line with broader expectations after the adjustments to the relevant purchase bands in the Bank's February Rinban outline.
• Cover ratios at the operations were as follows:
• 1-3 Year: 3.01x (prev. 3.18x)
• 3-5 Year: 3.08x (prev. 2.64x)
• As you can see, there was little in the way of meaningful movement in the cover ratios, even against lower purchase volumes.
• The morning also saw comments from BoJ Deputy Governor Wakatabe, who noted that "despite the unexpected shock of COVID-19, the basic stance of the monetary policy conduct toward achieving the price stability target of 2 percent is reasonable." On the ongoing monetary policy review, Wakatabe stressed that "in conducting the upcoming assessment, I would like to emphasize that the Bank does not intend to tighten monetary easing. It also does not aim at only containing costs of policy measures. Rather, the Bank will consider how to be nimble in conducting effective monetary easing while taking care of costs."