USD/JPY ekes out gains despite risk-off in Asian equities

USD/JPY, which traded at lows near 105.00 in early Asian, rose to a session high of 105.58 a few minutes before press time despite the losses in the Asian equities.

As of writing, Japan's Nikkei is down 260 points or 1.26% and stocks in Australia, South Korea are reporting 0.32% and 0.60% losses, respectively.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index is currently shedding 372 points or 1.44%.  Violent protests are dragging Hong Kong "to the brink of no return," the city's leader warned earlier today.

Even so, the anti-risk Japanese Yen has come under pressure in the last couple of hours. The uptick in the USD/JPY could be associated with the developments on the technical charts. Notably, the hourly chart was reporting a bullish divergence of the widely followed relative strength index earlier today. A bullish divergence is considered a sign of seller exhaustion. 

Also, the 0.23% rise in the S&P 500 futures could be helping USD/JPY chart gains. 

Focus on US CPI

The US inflation, as represented by the consumer price index (CPI), is forecast to rise 0.3% month-on-month in July, following a 0.1% rise in June. The core CPI is seen printing at 0.2%.

Trading the US Dollar on the CPI news is rather straightforward, writes FXStreet's Yohay Elam.

"An acceleration to 2.2% or higher would boost the greenback while a miss of 2% or lower may send it lower"

Pivot points