USD/JPY holding onto 149.30 despite US Dollar retreat

The USD/JPY got strung along the middle for Thursday, cycling 149.30.
The pair closed down 20 pips on the day but missed any major moves.
Friday sees Japanese Tokyo CPI, US PCE inflation numbers.

Joshua Gibson FXStreet

The USD/JPY went sideways on Thursday ahead of Friday's inflation double-feature. The pair is off the week's peak near 149.70, and analyst bets of USD/JPY hitting 150.00 are holding steady.

Despite a broad-market US Dollar (USD) Index retreat on firming risk appetite, the USD/JPY remains mostly flat for Thursday. The pair started Thursday trading off with an early high of 149.50 before falling back to familiar territory near 149.30.

Officials from the Bank of Japan (BoJ) has put some significant effort into trying to jawbone the JPY to hold steady, but visibly-empty threats of tightening monetary policy have provided little effect thus far.

USD/JPY: A move to 150 now appears on the horizon – UOB

Friday sees Japan's Tokyo Consumer Price Index (CPI) reading for the annualized period into September, and the core CPI element (CPI less food but still including energies) is forecast to print at 2.6%, versus the previous reading of 2.8%.

Japanese inflation remains well above the BoJ's 2% target, but the BoJ continues to hold off on any rate adjustments until they are "convinced" that inflation will remain above their minimum target heading into a potential slowdown period in price growth.

Friday will also see US Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE), which is expected to hold steady at the previous quarter's 0.2%.

USD/JPY technical outlook

The USD/JPY remains firmly bullish from a technical standpoint, having closed in the green or flat for ten of the eleven last consecutive trading weeks.

The pair is up over 13% from the year's early lows near 127.20, and currently remains well above major moving averages, with the 34-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) sitting far below current price action near the 147.00 handle.

USD/JPY daily chart

USD/JPY technical levels

USD/JPY

Overview
Today last price	149.28
Today Daily Change	-0.36
Today Daily Change %	-0.24
Today daily open	149.64

Trends
Daily SMA20	147.63
Daily SMA50	145.34
Daily SMA100	142.87
Daily SMA200	137.87

Levels
Previous Daily High	149.71
Previous Daily Low	148.86
Previous Weekly High	148.46
Previous Weekly Low	147.32
Previous Monthly High	147.38
Previous Monthly Low	141.51
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	149.39
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	149.19
Daily Pivot Point S1	149.1
Daily Pivot Point S2	148.56
Daily Pivot Point S3	148.25
Daily Pivot Point R1	149.95
Daily Pivot Point R2	150.25
Daily Pivot Point R3	150.79

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.

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