Friday is a bank holiday in Japan to celebrate the Emperor’s birthday, and the Japanese economy could certainly use a reason to celebrate. Last week, we learned that the Japanese economy saw an outright contraction in the 4th quarter, pushing it into a technical recession and allowing Germany’s economy to leapfrog it as the world’s 4th largest. Weighed down by weaker-than-expected economic data and dovish comments from the Bank of Japan (BOJ), the Japanese yen hasn’t seen a meaningful weekly rally against the US dollar yet this year. With little in the way of Japanese economic data on the calendar for the rest of the ... (full story)