Japan's business sentiment improves for third straight quarter

Business confidence at large manufacturers in Japan improved in the three months to December for a third straight quarter, according to the Bank of Japan's quarterly Tankan survey on Wednesday. 

That being said, the headline large Manufacturers' Sentiment Index came in at 12.0 from the previous reading of 9.0, better than the market expectation of 10.0. 

Further details unveil that the large Non-Manufacturing Outlook for the fourth quarter (Q4) arrived at 24.0 versus 21.0 prior, worse than the market consensus of 25.0.

Market reaction

At the time of press, the USD/JPY pair was down 0.04% on the day at 145.43.