Yen Down For the 3rd Straight Session, Wages & BoJ Opinions Out Today

USD/JPY upside momentum ran out of steam as Wednesday's US session unfolded. We got to 155.65/70 but couldn't extend gains. Pullbacks were relatively shallow though (155.35/40) and we track near 155.50 in early Thursday dealings. Yen lost just over 0.50% for the third straight session on Wednesday. Upside focus remains on the May 2 highs at 156.28.

• Broader USD gains continued on Wednesday, although the BBDXY finished off intra-session highs, closing at 1256.5 (earlier highs were near 1258). Yen was the worst performer in the G10 space.
• Continued upside in EUR/JPY has been evident, the pair building further above its 50-dma support that contained the pullback last week. Wednesday's high closely matches initial resistance at 167.39, the May 2 high.
• In the cross-asset space, US yields finished higher, as the curve steepened (10yr back near 4.50%) (despite some softer US data). This likely weighed on yen at the margins, while markets test the authorities resolve after last week's round of intervention.
• Today on the local calendar we have the BoJ summary of opinions from the April meeting. On data front, March labor cash earnings are out. The market expects nominal earnings at 1.4% y/y (prior 1.4%), real at -1.4% y/y (prior -1.8%). Later on, we get office vacancies and the leading and coincident indices for March.
• In the option expiry space, note the following for NY cut later: Y152.00($1.2bln), Y153.00-20($1.1bln), Y154.25-30($1.0bln), Y155.00($865mln), Y155.50($515mln), Y156.65($969mln).