Japan’s Financial Minister Describes Excessive Yen Moves “Undesirable”

Major U.S. markets opened higher today, ahead of the publication of key economic data on manufacturing and unemployment during this week. Markets are recovering from another bloodletting week which closed with yet more sell-offs on Friday, amid escalating pro-inflationary and recessionary talks and the escalation of geopolitical and geoeconomical tensions in the wake of gas leak from Northstream-2 pipeline near Danish state border condemned by several European leaders as an act of sabotage.

During the pre-market session, shares of Peloton Interactive (PTON) jumped by 5% in the premarket after the company announced a partnership with Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. Meanwhile, Tesla's (TSLA) shares slumped 7.33% following the news that vehicle deliveries for Q3 missed market estimates.

European stock indices are trading moderately in the green this afternoon, dispelling earlier doldrums, after the United Kingdom government confirmed it is going to reverse some of its highly criticized decisions on the controversial tax cut for the richest earners. Traders are also monitoring manufacturing activity data from the Eurozone, Germany and the UK. The German DAX is adding 0.21%. Deutsche Bank (DBK) shares dropped 1.1% recovering from earlier losses as deep as almost 3% at 9:00 a.m. CET. Both the British FTSE 100 and the French CAC 40 are trading nearly flat at the time of writing, with the worst performer being Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust (SMT.L), down 4.21% and Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW), which led the losses, failing 1.99% consecutively.

The euro is trading 0.12% lower against the dollar, selling at 0.97913 at the time of writing. In distinction, the British pound increased by 0.79% against the greenback, to 1.12511 at the same time. Asian markets traded mostly lower earlier on Monday. Despite Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.07%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.83%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 eased by 0.3%, while India’s S&P BSE Sensex shed 1.2%. In terms of macro, the S&P Global Indian Manufacturing dropped to a 3-month low of 55.1 in September from 56.2 in August, while Japanese manufacturing PMI fell to 50.8 in September from a final 51.5 in August. The S&P Global Australian manufacturing PMI fell to 53.5 in September from 53.8 in August.

Meanwhile, Japanese incumbent Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki stated earlier this morning that sharp currency moves are “undesirable” as the Japanese government continues to monitor the movements of the yen “with a strong sense of urgency.” He repeated that the government will “respond appropriately” against any sudden developments. Suzuki noted that it is important that the currency “moves stably reflecting economic fundamentals.” Previously, the Finance Ministry unveiled it spent ¥2.83 trillion on forex intervention operations in late August and in September.