The Japanese Yen touched a 5-day peak versus the US Dollar after the Japanese central bank surprised markets by trimming long-dated government bond purchases. That has led to some speculation that, perhaps later this year, the Bank of Japan may finally begin to wind down its massive Quantitative Easing program. Analysts point out that “tweaking” bond operations to control the bond yield curve has been standard operating procedure for the BOJ; however, today’s move still came as a surprise to market players and analysts alike.

As reported at 10:41 am (GMT) in London, the USD/JPY was trading at 112.879 Yen, down 0.24%; the pair earlier hit a session peak of 113.180 Yen while the low is at 112.470 Yen. The EUR/JPY is down 0.597% and trading at 134.6701 Yen. The GBP/JPY is down 0.55% and trading at 152.72595 Yen.

Euro Still Struggling

In the Eurozone, the Euro continues to come under some sell pressure against the US Dollar and earlier today touched a 10-day trough. One currency strategist in Frankfurt believes that while markets may be optimistic about the single currency, the European Central Bank still maintains an expansionary vision. Despite that, the EUR/USD is still heavily dependent on Dollar sentiment and factors impacting the greenback will be watched carefully by FX traders. Currently, the EUR/USD is trading at $1.1928, down 0.35%, off the session low of $1.19240 while the peak is at $1.19757.