USD/JPY moves beyond mid-113.00s, over 1-week highs

   •  US-China trade optimism continues to dent JPY’s safe-haven status.
   •  The USD gets a minor lift from the post-ECB selling around the EUR.
   •  The up-move remained supported by better than expected US data.

The USD/JPY pair continued gaining positive traction and climbed beyond mid-113.00s, over one-week tops, during the early North-American session.

After yesterday's brief pause, the pair regained positive traction on Thursday and built on last week's goodish rebound from the very important 100-day SMA support.

Optimism over easing US-China trade tensions dampened the Japanese Yen's perceived safe-haven status and was seen as one of the key factors underpinning the major.

This coupled with the post-ECB downtick in the shared currency provided a minor lift to the US Dollar and remained supportive of the pair's ongoing positive momentum.

The greenback was further supported by upbeat US data, showing that the initial weekly jobless claims for the week ended Dec. 8 fell more than expected to 206K from previous week's upwardly revised reading of 233K.

With bulls now trying to hold the pair above mid-113.00s, a follow-through up-move, led by some fresh technical buying, now looks a distinct possibility amid the prevalent risk-on mood.

Technical outlook

Valeria Bednarik, FXStreet's own American Chief Analyst explains: “The 4 hours chart offers a neutral-to-bullish stance, as, in the 4 hours chart, technical indicators lack directional strength but hold within positive levels, while the pair develops above modestly bullish 100 and 200 SMA, which anyway, remain confined to a well-limited range.”