USD/JPY turns red near 110.50 as US Dollar slips on mixed employment data

• Nonfarm payrolls grew by 213K in June.
• The unemployment rate in the U.S. rose to 4%.
• US Dollar Index broke below 94 to touch a fresh 3-week low.

After moving sideways in a tight range between 110.60 and 110.70 in the last hours, the USD/JPY pair came under a renewed selling pressure and fell to a fresh session low at 110.46. As of writing, the pair was trading at 110.52, down 0.13% on the day.

The eagerly waited employment report from the United States showed that the nonfarm payrolls increased 213K in June to beat the experts’ estimate of 195K. Despite that upbeat figure, however, the unemployment rate rose to 4% in June from 3.8% in May amid a 0.2% monthly advance in the labor force participation rate. More importantly, the wage inflation measured by the average hourly earnings  rose by 0.2% in June to fall short of the market expectation of 0.3%.

Following the data, the greenback started to weaken against its rivals and the US Dollar Index touched its lowest level since mid-June at 93.66. At the moment, the index is at 93.75, losing 0.4% on the day.

There won’t be any other macroeconomic data releases in the remainder of the day but a negative start amid  by Wall Street amid trade tensions could continue to hurt the risk appetite and force the pair to extend its losses.

Technical levels to consider

The pair could encounter the first support at 110.35 (20-DMA) ahead of 110 (psychological level/50-DMA) and 109.50 (200-DMA). On the upside, resistances align at 110.80 (Jul. 6 high), 111.10 (Jul. 3 high) and 110.40 (May 21 high).