- GBP/JPY looks to close third straight day in the positive territory.
- JPY struggles to find demand as a safe haven on Monday.
- UK PM Johnson says they want this lockdown to be the last one.
The GBP/JPY pair extended its rally and closed the fourth straight week in the positive territory last Friday. With the risk-positive market environment forcing the JPY to weaken against its major rivals, the pair continued to push higher and touched its best level since December 2019 at 104.65 on Monday. As of writing, GBP/JPY was up 0.87% on the day at 146.55.
UK’s FTSE 100 and Japan’s Nikkei 225 indexes surge on Monday
Reflecting the upbeat market mood, Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index rose more than 2% on Monday and advanced above 30,000 for the first time since 1990. Similarly, the UK’s FTSE 100 Index posted an impressive daily gain of 2.6%.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday that they will be setting out a roadmap out of the lockdown and added that they want it to be the last one.
Earlier in the day, the data from Japan showed that Industrial Production declined by 1% on a monthly basis in December. However, this reading came in better than the market expectation for a decrease of 1.6%. Additionally, Japan’s Health Ministry announced on Sunday that they have approved the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, boosting the sentiment at the start of the week.
On Tuesday, the Tertiary Industry Index will be featured in the Japanese economic docket. There won’t be any significant macroeconomic data releases from the UK.
Technical levels to watch for
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