USDJPY shakes off the PPI shackles to bring the options expiries into focus

Lumpy options are likely to be the driver of prices up until the cut at 14.00 GMT

As I mentioned on the PPI post, the buck has grabbed some inflationary data with both hands, although putting it into context, a 25 pip move in USDJPY isn’t exactly a moonshoot. What it has done is given option players a reason to hold the price up around some big expiries between 112.40 and 112.65, where a total of 3.21bn is rolling off at the cut.

That’s it for the data, so bar any talking heads (World Bank’s Kim is kicking off the WB/IMF event as I type), there’s a good chance we’re going to ping pong around these levels into the expiry, and it might get a bit choppy.