Markets Get the Worst Kind of Kuroda Surprise as BOJ Stands Pat
- Yen strengthens, Topix slides in Tokyo after decision
- BOJ maintains policy even after consumer prices fell in March
BOJ Surprise: Kuroda's Act of Market Defiance?
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Haruhiko Kuroda hasn’t lost his power to jolt markets: but now he’s moving them by doing nothing.
The yen soared the most in eight months and stocks sank in Tokyo on Thursday as the Bank of Japan Governor held off from adding to the central bank’s bond-buying program or its budget for exchange-traded equity funds. The move confounded economists, a slight majority of whom had expected extra easing, and investors, who’d pushed the Topix index higher and the yen toward a one-month low in the hours before the decision.