The yen’s retreat to near 38-year lows dragged Asian stock markets into negative territory, with Hong Kong posting the biggest losses.
The yen traded at 160.82 against the US dollar, according to FactSet data. The yen last breached the 160 level against the dollar two months ago, prompting the Japanese government to support it with the country’s first monetary intervention since 2022.
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Thursday that the country is “deeply concerned about the currency’s impact on the economy,” Reuters reported, and naturally investors are expecting new interventions.
Meanwhile, Japan’s annual retail growth for May was 3 percent, higher than the market forecast of 2 percent, according to a Reuters poll of economists.
China’s industrial profits rose 3.4 percent annually from January to May to 2.75 trillion Chinese yuan ($378.41 million), official data showed on Thursday. The industrial country’s income in the first four months of this year increased by 4.3%.
In this context, Mr Nikkei Japan’s 225 fell 1%, while the broad-based Topix lost 0.5%.
The Hang Seng index led the region’s losses, falling more than 2%. Mainland China’s CSI 300 also slipped 0.41% lower.
South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.48 percent, while the small-cap Kosdaq was 0.37 percent lower.