Yen Soars, Stocks Slide After Kuroda Says "No Need Or Possibility For Helicopter Money"
By Tyler Durden
The main catalyst that has pushed stocks to new all time highs, and sent the Yen plunging the most in the 21st century last week, were reports that Ben Bernanke was urging Japan to unleash helicopter money. Indeed, just yesterday, the USDJPY hit new two month highs on reports Japan was considering doubling the previously rumored fiscal stimulus of JPY10 trillion to 20, with the implication that the BOJ would provide the funds. It appeared that Japan had found just the jawboning tagline to keep stocks levitating and the Yen dropped: just hint every other day that more helicopter-funded stimulus is coming and jawbone assets, the same way verbal hints of more BOJ QE worked in 2015.
Which is why we were surprised to read this morning that BOJ governor Kuroda had shut down Bernanke, saying there is no need and no possibility of helicopter money in Japan, increasing speculation about the course of monetary and fiscal policy in the world’s third-largest economy. Given the current institutional setting, there is “no need and no possibility for helicopter money,” Kuroda said in a BBC Radio 4 program that was broadcast Thursday. “At this moment, the Bank of Japan has three options with quantitative and qualitative easing with negative interest rates.”
These current policies can be expanded, he said. Kuroda also repeated that he is determined to rid Japan of its deflationary mindset, and that there are no significant limitations to further monetary stimulus if needed by the BOJ.
Which, however, is not true: like the ECB, the BOJ is rapidly running out of willing bond sellers as its universe of eligible bonds gets smaller, while NIRP has proven to be far more deflationary than anyone had expected. In fact, the only way the BOJ’s policies can continue is if the government opens the debt issuance spigot, which is all that helicopter money really is. We are confident that Kuroda gets this, and we are confident that despite his reverse-jawboning today, helicopter money is precisely what will happen.
But first there needs to be a crisis. As BofA’s Athanasios Vamvakidis said, “markets had run ahead of themselves, expecting too much. Helicopter money is the inevitable end game in Japan, but we aren’t there yet, it will be the bazooka that the BOJ will use after a crisis.” So we just need the crisis. For now however, there is none, and immediately after Kuroda’s interview, the Yen soared, strengthening against all 16 of its major peers. The USDJPY tumbled more than 1% in the minutes after Kuroda’s interview was releaesed.
“Kuroda has just given investors a bit of a disappointment,” said Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank A/S in Hellerup, Denmark. “The market had actually changed its sentiment and pricing based on the assumption that we would get something big on the fiscal stimulus side, and that Japan would be the first wave.”
Meanwhile, almost $5 trillion has been added to the value of global equities since June 27 amid signs …read more
Source: Yen Soars, Stocks Slide After Kuroda Says "No Need Or Possibility For Helicopter Money"
