Japanese Retail Sales, or Retail Trade as it's referred to by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Tourism came in well under expectations early Wednesday, with headline annualized Retail Sales for the year ended December growing by just 2.1% compared to the forecast 5.1%, falling even further back from the previous period's 5.3%.

Seasonally-adjusted December Japanese Retail Trade declined by 0.8% MoM, compared to November's print of 1.0%.

Market reaction

The USD/JPY is ticking down into 147.40 immediately after release after the pair caught a downside bounce from the 200-hour Simple Moving Average (SMA) mid-Tuesday just shy of the 148.00 handle.