Highlights:
| Fukuda Offers To Free Up Road Revenues For General Spending From FY09 |
Adds to aggregate demand.
| MOF Frets Over Yen, But No Threat Of Action |
Don’t want Paulson to call them a currency manipulator.
| Suda: Natural For BOJ To Aim For Rate Hike |
They see inflation heating up over time.
| Some Gas Stations Raise Prices Ahead Of Expiring Surcharge |
| Toyota, Nissan To Raise Entry-Level Pay For College Graduates |
| Bonds: End Up On Weak Stocks: CPI, Tankan Eyed |
Article:
Bonds: End Up On Weak Stocks: CPI, Tankan Eyed
TOKYO (Dow Jones)–Japanese government bonds ended higher Thursday due to weakness in Tokyo stocks but the upside was limited ahead of the fiscal-year end and major domestic events.
Market participants are now waiting for domestic economic data, including the consumer price index due out Friday, and the Bank of Japan’s quarterly tankan survey on April 1.
“If the CPI figure comes out better than market expectations (and tops 1%), BOJ rate cut views may slightly recede,” said Naomi Hasegawa, senior strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities.
Note the rhetoric that states higher inflation is ‘better’ !!!
I still have a TIBOR short a year out as a bet they don’t cut as much as is priced in.
Japan’s nationwide core CPI, excluding fresh food, is expected to have risen 0.9% on year in February, according to economists surveyed by Dow Jones and Nikkei. The index climbed 0.8% in January. The five-year yield dropped 3.0 basis points to 0.725%. Yields on 10-year and 20-year JGBs were both down 1.0 basis point at 1.265% and 2.010% respectively.