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Japanese yen hits 150 against the U.S. dollar, weakest levels not seen since August 1990

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The Japanese yen weakened past 150 against the U.S. dollar Thursday, hitting a key psychological level that hasn’t been seen since August 1990.

The Bank of Japan’s two-day meeting is slated for next week. Policymakers have ruled out a rate hike in order to defend against further weakening of the currency.

On Thursday, Japan’s 10-year government debt yields breached the 0.25% ceiling that the central bank vowed to defend – last standing at 0.252%. The yield on the 20-year bond also rose to its highest since September 2015.

The Bank of Japan also announced emergency bond-buying operations Thursday. It offered to buy 100 billion yen ($666.98 million) worth of Japanese government bonds with maturities of 10-20 years and another tranche worth 100 billion yen with maturities of 5-10 years.

The central bank has repeatedly vowed to buy an unlimited amount of bonds at a fixed rate in order to cap 10-year government debt yields at 0.25% as part of its stimulus measures for the economy.

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On Thursday, Reuters reported Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said the government will take “appropriate steps against excess volatility.”

“Recent rapid and one-sided yen declines are undesirable. We absolutely cannot tolerate excessively volatile moves driven by speculative trading,” he said.

Levels ‘not destabilizing’

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