At the end of the week, USDJPY reached stability after plunging the day before.

The Japanese Yen recovered a little bit after yesterday’s decline against the USD. The current quote for the instrument is 109.50.

Investors that had a couple of days off due to Christmas are back to the market and their interest in the USD as a “safe haven” asset went down.

Today’s reports from Japan were pretty interesting. The Unemployment Rate went from 2.4% in October to 2.2% in November, although it wasn’t expected to change. It looks like the Japanese population sees slowdown in the national economy and vague outside market conditions, and tries to find new sources of income.

The Retail Sales lost 2.1% y/yin November after decreasing by 7.0% y/y the month before and against the expected reading of -1.7% y/y, but it is not surprising: people prefer to save money due to the same dim economic outlook.

The preliminary report on the Industrial Production showed -0.9% m/m in November after being -4.5% m/m in the previous month. The indicator has been falling for two consecutive months, which may indicate a slowdown in the country’s GDP in the fourth quarter. However, the reason for this decline is quite clear: both Export and Consumer Spending went down. Taken together, they have a significant negative influence on the country’s economy.

Such mixed statistics may well be a reason for implementing additional QE mechanisms by the Bank of Japan.