- USD/JPY lacked any firm directional bias and held near two-week lows.
- Improving risk sentiment, a modest USD uptick extended some support.
- The US jobless claims jumped to 6.648 million but did little to influence.
The USD/JPY pair edged lower during the early North-American session and moved to the lower end of its daily trading range post-US macro data.
A combination of diverging forces failed to provide any meaningful impetus and led to a subdued/range-bound price action through the major part of Thursday trading action.
A modest recovery in the global risk sentiment undermined the Japanese yen's perceived safe-haven demand and helped the pair to hold its neck above the 107.00 round-figure mark.
This coupled with a modest pickup in the US dollar demand extended some additional support, albeit a steep decline in the US Treasury bond yields capped any meaningful gains.
Meanwhile, the greenback lost some traction, albeit lacked any strong follow-through after the US initial weekly jobless claims surged to 6648K as against a rise to 3500K estimates.
Given that a big jump in the number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits was largely priced in amid the coronavirus crisis, the data failed to provide any meaningful impetus.
Hence, it will be prudent to wait for some strong follow-through selling, possibly a sustained weakness below the 107.00 mark, before positioning for any further depreciating move.
Technical levels to watch
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