Yen Gains Nearly 1% On Sharp US Yield Pullback, Q1 GDP Out Today Locally

Yen rallied just under 1% for Wednesday's session as the dollar suffered broad based losses. The BBDXY fell 0.62%, as the market took a strong risk on tone amid a broadly in line US CPI print, but retail sales missed. USD/JPY tracks near 154.80 in early Thursday dealings. Yesterday's highs were near 156.60.

• US Tsy yields finished around 9-11bps lower across the benchmarks. Super core CPI was at a still hot but broadly as expected 0.42% M/M. US retail sales had their poorest performance in 3 months in April, with weakness evident across the board, partially reversing March's strong gains.
• Yen gains were around middle of the pack from a G10 standpoint, aided by the sharp pull back in yields. It underperformed the likes of NZD and AUD but only at the margin. US equities surged (SPX+1.17%) on soft landing hopes.
• In terms of tech levels for USD/JPY, we are just under the 20-day EMA (154.96), while the 50-day sits further south near 153.33. The May 14 high was at 156.74.
• Locally today we have Q1 GDP. The market consensus is for a -1.2% q/q annualized dip (Q4 was 0.4%). Weekly investment flows are also out, while later on IP for March prints.
• In the option expiry space note the following for NY cut later: Y155.00-05($1.5bln), Y159.30-50($2.5bln).