USD/JPY bounces off weekly lows, still in the red below 109.00 mark

The USD/JPY pair maintained its heavily offered tone through the early European session, albeit has managed to recovery around 50-60 pips from weekly lows.

The pair extended this week's retracement slide from one-month tops and remained under some heavy selling pressure for the second consecutive session on the last trading day of the week.

As investors digested the recent optimism over a massive $2.2 trillion US economic stimulus package, worries about an imminent global recession continued weighing on investors sentiment.

The risk-off mood was evident from a weaker tone around equity markets and reinforced by a fresh leg down in the US Treasury bond yields, which underpinned the Japanese yen's safe-haven demand.

Meanwhile, the US dollar stalled its week-long downtrend, triggered by the Fed's unlimited QE, and managed to regain some positive traction, which helped limit further losses, at least for now.

The pair has now moved back closer to the 109.00 mark, albeit the upside is likely to remain capped amid persistent concerns over the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

Thursday's unprecedented jump in the US initial weekly jobless claims provided further evidence of the devastating impact on the US economy and might keep a lid on the pair's attempted recovery.

Technical levels to watch