Japan’s Amari: BOJ steps meant to allow smooth implementation of

The BoJ said Friday’s news did not amount to an expansion of current monetary easing policies. With the central bank holding more of the country’s sovereign debt than any other investor class – its share is in excess of 30 percent – this may make it easier to keep scooping up more of the market.

TRUCKING: Shares of J.B. Hunt Transportation surrendered $2.67, or 3.7 percent, to $69.91 and Ryder System lost $2.9i9, or 5.1 percent, to $53.79.

With only a week until Christmas, we might ordinarily expect markets to go into holiday mode but that is certainly not the case at the moment, thanks primarily to some very active central banks and some interesting activity in oil.

The euro was last up 0.32 percent against the dollar at $1.08600 (EUR=EBS).

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) maintained its money-printing drive at the current rate yesterday, but reorganised its massive stimulus programme to advance Premier Shinzo Abe’s plans to prod companies into boosting wages and investment.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 186.7 points, or 1.07 percent, to 17,309.14. Financial stocks like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup took the biggest declines while trucking and oil drilling companies also stumbled. “It suggests the BoJ is out of ammunition, and will not be able to deliver anything meaningful going forward”, he said.

Ahead of the policy review, the dollar was flat against the Japanese currency at 122.54 yen, and up over 1 percent for the week. Given that Japanese stock prices rose about 10%-15% over the past year, the BOJ had to buy more ETFs to have same easing effects as a year ago, he said.

And the USA dollar jumped to ￥123.13 from ￥122.56 earlier in Tokyo before also settling back.

“They were looking for more, and when the market’s disappointed, this is what you get”, he said.

US oil prices slipped 1.6% to $34.95 a barrel overnight after stockpile data showed no pause in the flood of excess oil.

The price of Brent Crude, seen as the global benchmark, was 1.4% lower at $36.86 a barrel. Given the renewed slide in crude oil in recent weeks, and the risk that it will suppress prices long term, officials are closely watching gauges of inflation expectations, the people said. Instead of contracting by 0.8% annualised in Q3, the economy actually grew by 1%.

This time, the Nikkei Stock Average briefly shot up on the news, rising to a two-week high in five minutes, but ended trading down 366.76 points, or 1.9 per cent, at 18986.80.

This week, the USA central bank raised its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point, signaling confidence in the US recovery, but Japan’s is still struggling to re-ignite growth after years of stagnation.