Japan Core Machinery Orders for December +5.2% m/m (expected -6.1%)

Japan Core Machinery Orders for December

+5.2% for a good beat

  • expected -6.1%, prior +1.5% m/m

+11.8% y/y

  • expected %, prior % y/y

This is better news again for the Japanese economy (the news has been less bad so far this week for the economy … however with the new state of emergency in January the data may well deteriorate again.

The Government has rtasied its assessment on machinery orders in response to this better data.
A caveat with this data point each month is it is highly volatile. Still +11.8% y/y is good news. the data is indicative of capex 6 to 9 months ahead.
After its move above 106 earlier and highs over 106.20 (briefly) USD/JPY is little changed circa 106.10.