This can't be real/Yen at fresh 24 yr lows/A lot of important company comments, hopefully helpful

This story seems so ridiculous and outrageous and would be disastrous, though I don't doubt that some are thinking and talking out loud about this unfortunately, that it's only worth commenting further if it actually gains traction after the election, if applicable. https://www.wsj.com/economy/central-banking/trump-allies-federal-reserve-independence-54423c2f. Nothing good would come of this and I'll argue again, the Fed should be out of the game of price fixing the cost of money. Let the market determine the overnight rate based on the supply and demand for money. 

The yen continues to break down to a fresh 24 yr low vs the US dollar after the BoJ did nothing overnight as expected but gave no guidance on when they might raise rates again, though they hinted that they still will and there was no more color on when they will trim QE. Also, Governor Ueda didn't seem worried that the weaker yen is flowing thru into higher inflation, though acknowledged that it could but which just gives a green light to the yen shorts. He said, "For now, the weak yen has not had a big impact on underlying inflation. But prices are overshooting as a whole and the chance of inflation moving in line with our forecasts is rising...There's a risk that we could see a 2nd round of cost-push inflation."

Bottom line, there is just no sense of urgency still on the part of the BoJ after the moves they made in March. The comment from Ueda in particular on the yen was wanting if he really was interested in seeing it rally. "If yen moves have an effect on the economy and prices that is hard to ignore, it could be a reason to adjust policy." When will the BoJ move again with rates and/or trimming QE? It depends. He said "As for our future monetary policy guidance, it will depend on economic and price developments at the time. We will scrutinize the economy, prices and their risks, and set short term rates at each policy meeting." 

It's the Japanese citizenry that continues to get screwed as they get no interest income on their savings, inflation continues to run above wage growth and the purchasing power of their money continues to deteriorate. Partly for these reasons, we still like and own Japanese stocks as it's been the only saving grace lately for Japanese savers in terms of purchasing power. JGB yields were slightly lower while the Nikkei rose for the 4th trading day this week. 

The April CPI report for Tokyo came out and it was completely distorted by educational subsidies given out by the government that cut the numbers by about .50%, give or take, according to the economy ministry. The ex food and energy print was 1.8% y/o/y vs 2.9% in March and the estimate of 2.7% which didn't take this adjustment into account. As the number would still have been lower than expected, the 10 yr inflation breakeven was down 2 bps overnight. 

By the way, remember my long Hang Seng trade relative to the S&P 500 to start the year? The Hang Seng is only trailing the S&P by 230 bps now after falling behind by more than 1000 bps in Q1. 

Yen

From Royal Caribbean in their earnings release, and a company that is definitely in a great economic space right now, helped by strong boomer spending who are benefiting from higher interest rates:

“Wow, what a great start to the year! Demand for our leading brands and the incredible experiences they deliver continues to be very robust, resulting in outperformance in the first quarter, a further increase of full year earnings guidance, and 60% expected earnings growth y/o/y.”