Hedge Funds Faith in BOJ Easing Fades as Yen Shorts Cut

Hedge funds are losing confidence in Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s ability to keep depreciating the yen to boost growth and banish deflation as they wait for a second round of monetary easing to materialize.

Speculators and other leveraged investors have trimmed bearish wagers on Japan’s currency by more than 60 percent since a peak in December. The yen has strengthened 3.6 percent versus its developed-nation counterparts this year, the biggest advance in Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes and a turnaround from 2013, when it fell the most in three decades.