Japanese yen surges due to market jitters

The Japanese yen has steadied on Tuesday after surging 1.1% against the US dollar a day earlier. In the North American session, USD/JPY is trading at 142.19, up 0.13% on the day.

Red-hot yen is up 10% in 2025

The yen is red-hot and shows no signs of slowing down against the struggling US dollar. The Japanese currency has soared as much as 6.7% in April and has climbed a massive 10% since the start of the year. In this turbulent economic environment, jittery investors have flocked to safe havens such as the yen, as President Trump's erratic trade policy has triggered a "sell America" wave in the financial markets.

Japan is hoping to mitigate the impact of US tariffs, which pose a threat to the export-reliant country. The finance ministers of the US and Japan met on Thursday and Japan will be trying to use its leverage as the fourth-largest US trading partner to carve out some tariff exemptions.

The Bank of Japan is concerned about Trump's tariff policy and has adopted a wait-and-see attitude. BoJ officials have signaled that the central bank remains on track to hike interest rates but is widely expected to hold rates at Thursday's meeting.

US JOLTS Job Openings misses expectations

In the US, the focus will be on job numbers in the second half of the week. JOLTS Job Openings slipped to 7.19 million, down from 7.48 million and below the market estimate of 7.48 million.

All eyes are on Friday's nonfarm payrolls, which surprised on the upside last month with a gain of 228 thousand, blowing past the forecast of 140 thousand. The markets are braced for a weak nonfarm payrolls release of 135 thousand.