“¢ The prevalent cautious mood underpins JPY’s safe-haven demand and exerts some pressure.
“¢ A subdued USD price action/weaker US bond yields fail to provide any meaningful impetus.
The USD/JPY pair held on the defensive for the second consecutive session on Thursday, albeit has managed to recover the majority of its early lost ground to weekly lows.
The pair extended this week’s retracement slide from fresh YTD tops, levels beyond the 112.00 handle, and was further weighed down by reviving safe-haven demand amid the prevalent cautious mood.
With investors still awaiting fresh updates on the US-China trade deal, resurfacing global growth concerns dented on investors’ appetite for riskier assets and underpinned the Japanese Yen’s relative safe-haven status.
Bearish traders also took cues from a follow-through pull-back in the US Treasury bond yields, with a subdued US Dollar price action also doing little to lend any support or provide any meaningful bullish impetus.
The downside, however, remained limited as investors seemed reluctant to place any aggressive bets ahead of this week’s key event risk – the release of the closely watched US monthly jobs report (NFP) on Friday.
In the meantime, the broader risk sentiment and the USD price dynamics might continue to act as key determinants of the pair’s momentum amid relatively thin US economic docket, featuring the second-tier release of initial weekly jobless claims.
Technical levels to watch
Immediate resistance is pegged near the 111.80-85 region, above which the pair is likely to make a fresh attempt towards conquering the 112.00 handle and aim towards testing the 112.20-25 supply zone. On the flip side, the 111.60-55 region now seems to have emerged as immediate support, which if broken might turn the pair vulnerable to accelerate the fall further towards challenging the 111.00 round figure mark.
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