- According to Bloomberg, the Bank of Japan is now a top-10 shareholder in about 90% of the companies in the Nikkei 225. The central bank owns more Japanese blue-chips than fund giants BlackRock and Vanguard.
- “For those who want shares to go up at any cost, it’s absolutely fantastic that the BOJ is buying so much,” says one strategist, apparently unaware that the Nikkei hasn't done a whole lot while the BOJ has been on this buying spree. The average is down 8.4% this year, and pretty much flat since late 2014.
- The bank, meanwhile, is expected to announce further increases in ETF buying this week (it currently purchases about $27B of ETFs each year).
- ETFs: DXJ, EWJ, DBJP, JPNL, JEQ, EZJ, EWV, HEWJ, JPXN, JPP, FJP, JPN, HGJP, HEGJ, HFXJ, HJPX, FXJP, JPNH