USD/JPY heading topside for Friday, aiming for 148.50

The USD/JPY is seeing recovery on Friday into the top end of the week's trading.
The BoJ maintained its negative rate policy regime, as markets broadly expected.
US PMIs came in mixed, capping any decisive moves for the Greenback.

Joshua Gibson FXStreet

The USD/JPY is set to close out the trading week just south of the 148.50 level after peaking at an intraday high of 148.40 as the US Dollar (USD) covers its bids on a mixed Purchasing Manager Index (PMI) reading.

The Bank of Japan (BoJ) kept the bottom band of its main policy rate at -0.1% early on Friday, which shook off some bullish momentum for the Yen (JPY).

US S&P Global Manufacturing PMI improves to 48.9, Services PMI declines to 50.2 in September

Yen bulls found little love from the BoJ on Friday as the Japanese central bank reaffirmed its easy monetary policy stance until they see Japanese inflation maintaining 2% "in a stable manner". Inflation in the Japanese economy is on the high end for the time being, but price growth is expected to decline appreciably in the coming months, and the BoJ continues to be far off of a hawkish policy change.

US PMI figures came in somewhere in the middle, with manufacturing showing a minor improvement and services backsliding.

The US S&P Global Manufacturing PMI jumped further than expected, printing at 48.9 versus the expected 48, but the Services component missed to the downside, printing at 50.2 compared to the forecast 50.6. The mixed printing helped prop up the Greenback against the Yen, but kept gains restrained within the previous day's highs.

USD/JPY technical outlook

Thursday's backslide saw the USD/JPY fall to the 200-hour Simple Moving Average (SMA) before giving a rebound through early Friday trading.

The pair has gained steadily through the week, and is set to finish on the high end, currently looking for a foothold just beneath the week's peak of 148.46.

On the daily candlesticks the USD/JPY is decidedly bullish, up nearly 8% from July's bottom near 137.20. Bullish price momentum is seeing technical support from the 34-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA), and the US Dollar has gained over 13% against the Japanese Yen so far this year.

USD/JPY technical levels

USD/JPY

Overview
Today last price	148.26
Today Daily Change	0.67
Today Daily Change %	0.45
Today daily open	147.59

Trends
Daily SMA20	147.09
Daily SMA50	144.54
Daily SMA100	142.3
Daily SMA200	137.58

Levels
Previous Daily High	148.46
Previous Daily Low	147.32
Previous Weekly High	147.95
Previous Weekly Low	145.9
Previous Monthly High	147.38
Previous Monthly Low	141.51
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	147.76
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	148.03
Daily Pivot Point S1	147.12
Daily Pivot Point S2	146.65
Daily Pivot Point S3	145.98
Daily Pivot Point R1	148.26
Daily Pivot Point R2	148.93
Daily Pivot Point R3	149.4

Author

Joshua Gibson

FXStreet

Joshua joins the FXStreet team as an Economics and Finance double major from Vancouver Island University with twelve years' experience as an independent trader focusing on technical analysis.

EUR/USD faces next resistance near 1.1930

EUR/USD has surrendered its earlier intraday advance on Thursday and is now hovering uncomfortably around the 1.1860 region amid modest gains in the US Dolla. Moving forward, markets are exoected to closely follow Friday’s release of US CPI data.

GBP/USD change course, nears 1.3600

GBP/USD gives away its daily gains and recedes toward the low-1.3600s on Thursday. Indeed, Cable now struggles to regain some upside traction on the back of the sudden bout of buying interest in the Greenback. In the meantime, investors continue to assess a string of underwhelming UK data releases released earlier in the day.

Gold plunges on sudden US Dollar demand

Gold drops markedly on Thursday, challenging the $4,900 mark per troy ounce following a firm bounce in the US Dollar and amid a steep sell-off on Wall Street, with losses led by the tech and housing sectors.

Ripple collaborates with Aviva Investors to tokenize funds as XRP interest declines

Ripple (XRP) exhibits subtle recovery signs, trading slightly above $1.40 at the time of writing on Thursday, as crypto prices broadly edge higher. Despite the metered uptick, risk-off sentiment remains a concern across the crypto market, as retail and institutional interest dwindle.

A tale of two labour markets: Headline strength masks underlying weakness

Undoubtedly, yesterday’s delayed US January jobs report delivered a strong headline – one that surpassed most estimates. However, optimism quickly faded amid sobering benchmark revisions.

Aster Price Forecast: Demand sparks on Binance Wallet partnership for on-chain perpetuals

Aster is up roughly 9% so far on Thursday, hinting at the breakout of a crucial resistance level. Aster partners up with Binance wallet for the second season of the on-chain perpetuals challenge.