First, from CNBC: Nikkei Surges Past 13,000 on BOJ Surprise
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index traded nearly 4 percent higher on Friday while the yen plunged to a three-and-a-half-year low against the greenback … The BOJ’s shock therapy program to meet its 2 percent inflation target includes doubling the monetary base and purchasing long-dated government bonds. It plans to inject $1.4 trillion into the economy in less than two years.
And from the WSJ: Money Spigot Opens Wider
The Bank of Japan’s new leaders delivered on their pledge to radically overhaul its strategy to revive Japan’s economy, unveiling a package of easy-money policies Thursday so aggressive in scale and tactics that it surprised investors.
… “This is an entirely new dimension of monetary easing, both in terms of quantity and quality,” the Bank of Japan’s new governor, Haruhiko Kuroda, said Thursday. The BOJ said the programs would continue at least two years.
The strategy seeks to broadly change Japanese behavior and attitudes that have contributed to depressed spending, wages and prices over the past two decades.
“I will not use my fighting power in an incremental manner,” Mr. Kuroda said at a news conference following the central bank’s two-day meeting. “Our stance is to take all the policy measures imaginable at this point to achieve the 2% target in two years.”
Friday economic releases:
• 8:30 AM ET, the Employment Report for March will be released. The consensus is for an increase of 193,000 non-farm payroll jobs in March; the economy added 236,000 non-farm payroll jobs in February. The consensus is for the unemployment rate to be unchanged at 7.7% in March.
• Also at 8:30 AM, Trade Balance report for February from the Census Bureau. The consensus is for the U.S. trade deficit to increase to $44.8 billion in February from $44.4 billion in January.
• At 3:00 PM, Consumer Credit for February from the Federal Reserve. The consensus is for credit to increase $16.0 billion in February.