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Economic data on Friday showed USA retail sales growth was unexpectedly flat in July as people cut back on buying clothes and other goods, while the producer price index fell 0.4 percent in July, the biggest drop in almost a year. “Companies are becoming more pessimistic about making investments”.
However, corporate investment fell 0.4 percent.
In Tokyo late morning trade, the United States dollar stood at 101.31 yen, up from 101.14 yen in NY on Friday, while the euro bought 113.03 yen, against 112.93 yen. The euro was steady at $1.1161 EUR= having held in a $1.1050 to $1.1230 range for last couple of weeks.
Early on Monday, the dollar was flat at 101.30 yen JPY= and not far from important support around 100.80. The dollar index was effectively unchanged at 95.767 after going to as low as 95.254 on Friday, its lowest since August 3.
The Bank of Japan also recently announced it would modestly increase its asset purchases from financial institutions to help inject more cash into the world’s third-largest economy and pursue its 2 percent inflation target.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 were up 31 cents on Monday at $47.28 a barrel, while US crude CLc1 added 35 cents to $44.84. Brent crude, used to price Global oils, added 38 cents to $47.35 a barrel. Markets in South Korea and India are closed.
Japanese stock futures point towards a negative open on Monday following the data release.
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Japan also will see final June numbers for industrial production, with little change expected from the previous reading that showed an increase of 1.9 percent on month and a decline of 2.4 percent on year. That missed economists’ predictions for a 0.2 per cent expansion in the April-June period as weak exports and a fall in business spending held back activity.
