Nikkei ends at 5-week low on fears over U.S. rate hikes, economy

Japan Airlines climbed 75 yen, or 3.4 percent, to 2,307 yen, after its president said Friday its operating balance for July is likely to return to a profit for the first time since February 2020 before the spread of the coronavirus, thanks to increased domestic travel demand.

And all the free government bail out money.....

Nikkei index ended at a five-week low on concerns over a worsening of the U.S. economy as the Federal Reserve is expected to maintain its aggressive rate hikes to tame soaring inflation.

That. And news that Japan's ten year government bond yield increased to .23% Monday after the BOJ’s purchase of government bonds last week totalling 10.9 trillion yen (81 billion USD), the most on record. This following benchmark yields breaching its 0.25% tolerated limit, amid global debt selloffs.

How much was that? To compare, European Central Bank asset purchases under the APP program was about 27 billion USD per month from the timeframe of January through May.

Under the radar: Anyone see that Michio Saito was appointed to the Finance Ministry? He will head a division that covers the bond market. Nicknamed, "Mr. JGB," his solid credentials date back to the market unrest felt back in the 1990s. His influence may be key, as cooperation between the ministry and BoJ will be important to ease BoJ from its huge bond purchase practices as of late.

Other big news today. Rice futures were trading around $16.22 per hundredweight, the lowest in eight weeks, on news of that India (world's biggest rice exporter) indicated that it has no plans to restrict exports. And also news that Thailand (second-largest exporter) expects to ship more than seven million tons of rice this year, exceeding its initial target. In the January to April period, the country exported over 2.2 million tons of rice, an increase of over 52%.

Have a good day.

One more. The Japanese yen is trading at 134.94 a moment ago, weakening towards 135 per dollar. It briefly hit 135.55 last Tuesday, the lowest in 24 years.

Globalisation has been shown to be weak and has no protective mechanism in a crisis-a failure!