Yesterday’s release of the minutes from the BOJ’s (Bank of Japan)October  30th, 2015 monetary policy meeting gave further support to a stronger uptrend for the USD/JPY currency pair. Maintaining rates at 0.00% to 0.10% and the continued purchase of JGBs at an annualized pace of 80 trillion yen fundamentally supports the current uptrend for the Dollar vs. Yen trade. Further exacerbating the problem of attaining its targeted 2% consumer price inflation (CPI) are the lower prices in energy, namely crude oil, which is something out of its control and likely to persist for at least a couple more years if OPEC is right in its  latest assessment.

Below is  a technical analysis chart for the Dollar vs. Yen (USD/JPY) currency pair and it illustrates today’s breakout above the current range of consolidation. Another bullish signal is the 22-day moving average crossing above the 55-day moving average. Japan’s central bank is standing down on rate increases while the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Yellen is locked and loaded with a full metal jacket.May the currency wars wage on…