🦧 japan had to join the hike game

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bank of japan’s surprise decision

japan's central bank had been the only developed country's central bank that did not raise rates this year, until monday

• the japanese central bank announced that it intends to permit benchmark interest rates to 0.5%, up from 0.25% which was a previous cap

• this is huge (and unexpected) because japan's central bank set its target around zero for its benchmark government bond yield for more than five years, keeping overall market interest rates low

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why did they do this?

• it wasn’t necessarily to simply tame inflation by raising rates

• bank of japan's statement also included the "deteriorating functioning" of the government bond market and discrepancies between the 10-year yield and the yield on other maturities

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what’s happened since?

• the nikkei index (japan's "dow") is down nearly 3%, on rising rate concerns and weak earnings concern as a stronger yen could be negative for japanese exporters

• the japanese yen has strengthened against the dollar – one usd could buy 137 jpy before the announcement and now can only buy 132 jpy as of writing

• japanese yen strengthened nearly 4% against the chinese yuan, as the chinese central bank made two rate cuts this year as opposed to the japanese central bank staying stagnant all year and finally raising a notch at the year's final meeting

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surprising moves from asia!

💡 something im thinking about

meta's instagram rolled out a number of new features, including notes, in an attempt to compete with twitter (click image)

that's all, folks 🐒

as always, i’m no financial advisor! (i’m no substitute for professional financial services)