Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition garnered a two-thirds "super majority" after securing 312 of the 465 seats. While the election result was largely along expected lines, the magnitude of the mandate dented investor sentiment in the yen. The USDJPY pair spiked to as high as 114.09 following the news, its highest level in more than three months.
The greenback was already on bullish footing thanks to the US Senate approval of a budget blueprint for fiscal year 2018, overcoming a critical hurdle for Republicans to proceed with their tax-cut package. On the economic data front, sales of existing homes in the United States rose 0.70% month-on-month through the end of September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.39 million units, easily beating market expectations of a -1.00% drop. After briefly climbing above the 114.000 mark, USDJPY has since pulled back to around 113.700.
US Dollar Reaches 3-Month High Against Yen
Daily Analysis - 23/10/2017