EUR/JPY Hangs Around 173.00 Despite Eurozone's Retail Slump 🔍

EUR/JPY's winning streak continues. Six sessions now. Hovering near 172.80 during European trading hours. The cross seems oddly stable. Eurozone Retail Sales disappointed badly. July figures show just 2.2% growth year-over-year, missing the 2.4% forecast. Way down from that 3.5% jump we saw before. Monthly sales? Down 0.5%. Worse than expected. June had shown a 0.6% gain.

The Euro's staying strong 💪. Kind of surprising, actually. Stubborn inflation across the Eurozone keeps the ECB cautious. Looks like they'll hold rates steady in September. The August HICP inflation hit 2.1% YoY. Still above their 2.0% target.

Japanese Yen can't catch a break 📉. It's weak against most major currencies. Nobody's quite sure when the BoJ might hike rates next. Governor Ueda said Wednesday that rate increases are still on track. If growth and inflation behave, that is. Traders are now fixated on tomorrow's Japanese wage data. Might give some hints.

Japan's political scene isn't helping the Yen 🇯🇵. LDP Secretary-General Hiroshi Moriyama just resigned. He was close to Prime Minister Ishiba. Not entirely clear what this means, but it's rattling confidence in Ishiba's leadership. Those election setbacks weren't good.

Trade talks continue. Japan's negotiator Akazawa is in the US now. Administrative discussions. Still pushing for those presidential orders on tariffs they agreed on.

Tomorrow matters for EUR/JPY 📊. We'll get Eurozone Q2 GDP data. Also German Factory Orders for July. The cross is trending strongly despite the retail weakness. Suggests there's something resilient about this pair as we look toward Q4 2025. 🚀