USD/JPY: dips on Nikkei slipping in Tokyo, eye so 21-hour SMA

• USD/JPY is currently trading at 111.34 and losing its footing in the Tokyo opening hourly stick where traders are eyeing the 21-hourly SMA at 111.24.  
• Japan Manufacturing PMI data (flash) for July: 51.6 (down from 53 in June).

The Nikkei is slipping a little and making for an offer in the USD/JPY that had otherwise   been making a comeback since yesterday’s slaughtering on the BoJ noise where European and NY traders took a different view, the non-believers if you like, and sold into the yen’s strength on bets that the BoJ will not be tweaking their monetary policy as soon as next week, although perhaps trying to gear the markets up for some tweak or another at some time in the future.  

USD/JPY was picked up on the cheap from 110.75 by bargain hunters, forcing the pair back up to the Tenkan technical level around 111.50 in NY trade. Markets now get set for this week’s US GDP and interim data such as today’s PMIs that are released from the US session.  

• Wall Street closes mixed, Google reports higher-than-expected Q2 earnings after closing bell

USD/JPY levels

Valeria Bednarik, chief analyst at FXStreet explained that the pair is now hovering around the 61.8% retracement of its latest bullish run:

“The 4 hours chart shows that buyers surged on a test of the  200 SMA, but also that the upside remains capped by a horizontal 100 SMA while technical indicators barely recovered from oversold readings before losing upward strength, maintaining the risk skewed to the downside.”