AUD/JPY cycling north of 79.00 heading through a thin Monday

• Risk appetite holding steady to start the trading week, Japan’s early data reading comes in near expectations.
• The Aussie is struggling to maintain a grip on key levels across broader markets, and bulls are remaining flat for the day so far.

The AUD/JPY is trading flatly in early Monday action, testing the 79.30 region as the Antipodeans remain cautious to kick off the new week’s trading.

The early week remains tepid for the Aussie, with little data on the economic calendar and Pacific investors cowed after last week’s risk appetite rout that crushed global equities, but late Monday will be seeing Japan’s latest Unemployment Rate reading at 23:30 GMT, which is expected to hold steady at 2.4%.

Early Monday’s Japan Retail Trade figures largely came in as expected, with the headline annualized numbers for September coming in at 2.1% (forecast 2.1%, last 2.7%), but the main reading still declined over the previous month, while Large Retailer’s Sales for September came in at 0.4%, recovering from the previous month’s -0.1% decline.

AUD/JPY levels to watch

The Aussie-Yen pairing continues to trade within the bounds of a rough but steady bearish channel, and the AUD/JPY is trading into the upper bounds near 79.50 after bouncing from the lower end on Friday near 78.60, and buyers will be heading for a continued slide into the 75.00 handle if they can’t spur the pair to break higher into the 80.00 key technical level.