the market thinks the bank of japan’s new governor is negative for the yen and a plus for stocks at least based on his first policy board meeting after gov kazuo ueda presided over his first meeting the bank emphasized that it would continue monetary easing to support growth in wages and prices that was enough to persuade market players that an interestrate increase isn’t in the cards soon late friday in tokyo the yen was trading at around 136 to the dollar compared with around 134 to the dollar before the central bank’s midday decision the nikkei stock average ended 14 higher at 2885644 its highest close since aug 19 a cheaper yen tends to lift the profits of japan’s big exporters bank stocks were lower on fears that prolonged low rates would continue to hurt their profits “the risk that we fail to achieve 2 inflation by premature monetary tightening is bigger than the risk that inflation stays above 2 due to a delay in tightening” mr ueda said at a news conference “by restating its goal to achieve sustainable 2 inflation the boj gave a reminder that it is not moving toward policy normalization” said naomi muguruma a strategist at mitsubishi ufj morgan stanley securities the bank of japan’s shortterm policy rate is still in negative territory at minus 01 and its policy rates have generally been near zero for a quartercentury mr ueda said the bank would spend a year to 18 months on a review of that history “achieving price stability has been a challenge for a long period of 25 years” he said he added that the boj could change policy before the review is finished