Bank of Japan

Bloomberg's Richard Breslow, former FX trader and fund manager who now comments on markets, has been on a roll lately. One week ago, he officially lost it, going on an epic rant how central banks have devastated "markets" with their constant intervention (proven yet again with today's report that the BOJ now is a Top 10 owner of 90% of Japanese stocks): "You don’t need to be a Taleb or Mandelbrot to calculate that we have been having once in a hundred year events on a regular basis for the last thirty years" he raged.

The latest shocking example of just how intertwined central banks have become in not only Treasury and corporate bond markets and their respective "valuations", but also in stocks, comes courtesy of the Bank of Japan which days ahead of an announcement which may see it double its ETF purchases from the current JPY3.3 trillion to JPY7 trillion or more (if Goldman is correct) has just been revealed to be a top 10 holder in about 90% of all Japanese stocks!

Ahead of two key central banks events this week, the Fed announcement on Wednesday - in which Yellen is expected to do nothing and most likely will continue the dovish relent first seen a month ago - and then the BOJ on Thursday (which also mark the anniversary of the second longest and most artificial bull market in history) where Kuroda is increasingly expected to shock with something even more ridiculous, global shares have fallen modestly around the world as oil declined on signs a global surplus of crude is likely to persist.

Forget the G-20 agreement on no "competitive devaluations" - the full court press on the Bank of Japan to engage in the next round of aggressive currency devaluation is on, just three months after Kuroda unveiled Japan's first negative interest rate.

A rumor of The BoJ doing something moar (helping banks with NIRP loans) was the apparent catalyst for today's epic USDJPY spike, but the kindling was a record position among speculative futures traders that USDJPY would continue to fall.

Today's 250 pips plunge in Yen relative the dollar is the largest since Oct/Nov 2014 when The Fed ended QE3 and BoJ stepped in with QQE2 (or 22).

For now, however, the machines have failed to get inspiration for stock buying euphoria from this usually positive carry pump...