USD/JPY consolidates near 1-1/2 month tops, comfortably above 108.00 handle

Resurgent USD demand helped reverse the bearish gap on Monday.
The global flight to safety underpinned the JPY and capped gains.
Focus remains on this week’s key central bank meetings – FOMC & BoJ.

Haresh Menghani FXStreet

The USD/JPY pair now seems to have entered a consolidation phase and was seen oscillating in a range just below 1-1/2 month tops, set earlier this Tuesday.

Despite the latest escalation of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, following drone attacks on oil fields in Saudi Arabia, the pair on Monday witnessed a dramatic intraday turnaround and rallied around 70-pips from an early low to levels just below mid-107.00s.

The upside seems capped ahead of FOMC/BoJ

The overnight goodish move up was solely driven by resurgent US Dollar demand and the momentum extended through the early Asian session on Tuesday, albeit investors' reluctance to place aggressive bets ahead of the key central bank meetings capped further gains.

Meanwhile, the fact that surging Oil prices might have raised fears of a global economic slowdown now seemed to underpin the Japanese Yen's safe-haven demand and further collaborated towards keeping a lid on any strong follow-through appreciating move for the major.

However, the fact that the pair has found acceptance above 100-day SMA for the first time since early-May support prospects for an extension of the recent bullish trajectory, though investors are likely to wait for a fresh catalyst from the highly anticipated FOMC decision.

The Fed is widely expected to cut interest rates again at the conclusion of a two-day meeting on Wednesday but opinions on further easing remain divided. This will be followed by the latest BoJ monetary policy update on Thursday, which might further contribute towards determining the pair's next leg of a directional move.

In the meantime, the broader market risk sentiment and the USD price dynamics might continue to influence the price action and contribute towards producing some short-term trading opportunities amid absent relevant market-moving US economic releases on Tuesday.

Technical levels to watch

USD/JPY

Overview
Today last price	108.23
Today Daily Change	0.09
Today Daily Change %	0.08
Today daily open	108.14

Trends
Daily SMA20	106.74
Daily SMA50	107.14
Daily SMA100	108.08
Daily SMA200	109.4

Levels
Previous Daily High	108.17
Previous Daily Low	107.48
Previous Weekly High	108.26
Previous Weekly Low	106.76
Previous Monthly High	109.32
Previous Monthly Low	104.45
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	107.91
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	107.74
Daily Pivot Point S1	107.69
Daily Pivot Point S2	107.24
Daily Pivot Point S3	107
Daily Pivot Point R1	108.38
Daily Pivot Point R2	108.62
Daily Pivot Point R3	109.07

Author

Haresh Menghani

FXStreet

Haresh Menghani is a detail-oriented professional with 10+ years of extensive experience in analysing the global financial markets.

GBP/USD hits multi-week tops around 1.3560

GBP/USD gathers fresh steam and advances to new three-month peaks near the 1.3560 zone on Friday. Cable’s sharp move higher comes after three daily drops in a row and follows the increasing selling pressure hurting the Greenback.

EUR/USD pops to fresh two-month highs, targets 1.1600

EUR/USD advances markedly, revisiting the upper 1.1500s for the first time since mid-June. The pair’s sharp uptick comes on the back of a strong retracement in the US Dollar amid BoJ intervention chatter and despite steady uncertainty in the Middle East.

Gold picks up pace, approaches $4,400

Gold rebounds toward the $4,400 mark per troy ounce on Friday, reversing the previous day’s pullback. The precious metal’s recovery comes as fresh and intense weakness keep weighing on the US Dollar, while traders keep assessing easing expectations of an imminent Fed interest rate hike and the situation from the Middle East.

Pi Network Price Forecast: PI extends consolidation as bulls eye $0.10

Pi Network (PI) price holds steady on Friday, maintaining a consolidating tone for three consecutive days. Mild retail strength in the PI token remains stable, with Open Interest above $9 million, while social buzz eases. PI token’s technical outlook is mixed, as bearish momentum wanes to neutral, with bulls eyeing the $0.1000 psychological level.

Weekly focus: Some relief in US inflation concerns

Actual inflation data for July came out as expected with a 0.1% m/m increase in headline CPI and 0.2% excluding food and energy. Annual headline inflation remains too high at 3.4% and means that wage earners are experiencing stagnating spending power at best, and core inflation is a bit higher than the inflation target of two percent would suggest.

Why is Crude Oil priced for a reopening the ships haven't made?

Fourteen vessels crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday. Before the war, the count ran near 120 a day. In the sessions since the waterway was publicly declared open, Brent has drifted back to $87 and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) to $81, both a little lower again on Wednesday, with daily momentum on each unwound from the top of its range in late July to the low twenties now.