Japan's government offers a bleaker view of exports

On Thursday, the Japanese government released its monthly economic assessment report for May and reiterated that the economy is in an extremely severe situation. The government also lowered its view on the labour market and corporate investment.

Key points:

• The government assessed that exports are decreasing rapidly, changing its previous assessment of just decreasing.
• The government kept its view that private consumption was decreasing rapidly.

USD/JPY holds steady

The report did little to influence the Japanese yen. Meanwhile, the USD/JPY pair extended its subdued/range-bound trading action and continued with its struggle to make it through 50-day SMA.