Machinery Orders Rise in Japan

Japan’s core private-sector machinery orders in April dived a seasonally adjusted 8.8 percent from the previous month, the government said Wednesday, casting a shadow over prospects for a pickup in business investment that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sees as a mainstay of economic growth.

The orders, which exclude those for ships as well as those from utilities because of their volatility, fell for the first time in three months to 723.3 billion yen, the Cabinet Office said. They slid at their fastest pace since January 2009, when the country’s economy was sluggish in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis.

It was also the third-sharpest month-on-month drop in the orders, regarded as a leading indicator of capital spending, since comparable data became available in April 2005. In March, they rose at their quickest pace ever.

via Mainichi

This article is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Corporation or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. Leveraged trading is high risk and not suitable for all. You could lose all of your deposited funds.

Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza