“¢ The latest FOMC meeting minutes helps ease the recent USD bearish pressure.
“¢ Escalating US-China trade tensions provide an additional boost to the greenback.
“¢ Traders shrugged off global risk-aversion trade and sliding US bond yields.
The USD/JPY pair continued gaining positive traction for the third consecutive session on Thursday and jumped to fresh weekly tops in the last hour.
The pair built on this week’s recovery move from the vicinity of the very important 200-day SMA, sub-110.00 level, and inched back closer to the 111.00 handle amid resurgent US Dollar demand.
With investors looking past the latest US political drama, the greenback found some support from the latest FOMC meeting minutes, which revealed broad support for another interest-rate hike in September.
Adding to this, escalating US-China trade tensions, wherein the world’s two largest economies confirmed the implementation of 25% tariffs on $16 billion worth of the imports from either side, provided an additional boost to the buck.
Meanwhile, traders seemed to have largely shrugged off a weaker tone around the US Treasury bond yields and a global wave of risk-aversion trade, which tends to underpin the Japanese Yen’s safe-haven demand.
It would now be interesting to see if bulls are able to maintain their dominant position as the focus shifts to the Day 1 of the annual Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium for some fresh impetus.
Technical levels to watch
On a sustained move beyond the 111.00 handle, the pair is likely to extend the up-move towards 111.40-45 supply zone with some intermediate resistance near the 111.15-20 region.
On the flip side, the 110.55 area now seems to act as an immediate support, which if broken might turn the pair vulnerable to head back towards testing the key 110.00 psychological mark (100-day SMA).
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