Japanese Yen struggles to gain any meaningful traction despite stronger CPI print from Japan

The Japan Statistics Bureau reported this Friday that the National Consumer Price Index (CPI) eased from 2.5% to the 2.3% YoY rate in October, while the core CPI, which excludes volatile fresh food items, grew 2.3%. 

Additional details revealed that a core inflation reading that excludes both energy and fresh food costs remained above the Bank of Japan's 2% annual target and rose to 2.3% in October from 2.1% in the prior month.

The Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Thursday that the central bank will seriously take into account the impact the recent foreign exchange-rate movements could have on the economic and price outlook.

This keeps the door open for another BoJ interest rate-hike move in December, which, along with geopolitical risks from the worsening Russia-Ukraine war, boosts the Japanese Yen during the Asian session on Friday. 

Meanwhile, US data released on Thursday showed that Weekly initial jobless claims dropped by 6,000 to 213,000, or a seven-month low last week as compared to consensus estimates for a reading of 220,000.

US Existing Home Sales rebounded sharply after September's slump to the lowest since October 2010 and rose to an annual rate of 3.96 million units in October, posting the first annual gain since mid-2021.

A survey showed that manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region unexpectedly contracted in November. The Federal Reserve (Fed) Bank of Philadelphia's Manufacturing Index dropped to -5.5 from 10.3.