USD/JPY Price Analysis: Soars past 140.00 despite weakening US Dollar, eyes 141.00 resistance

USD/JPY leaps past the 140.00 mark, despite US economic data suggesting a potential Fed rate hike.
Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki encourages market-determined currency rates, stating that he’s closely monitoring exchange-rate movements.
USD/JPY, poised to challenge 142.00 once it clears 141.00, finds support at 139.89/140.00, with a deeper fallback to 137.26.

Christian Borjon Valencia FXStreet

USD/JPY rallied sharply past the 140.00 figure on Friday late in the New York session, after traveling towards its daily low of 139.49, before making a U-turn. Solid economic data from the United States (US) bolstered the odds for another rate hike by the Federal Reserve (Fed), as shown by the market reaction. US Treasury bond yields rose before reversing their course, while the US Dollar weakened. At the time of writing, the USD/JPY is trading at 140.60.

USD/JPY Price Analysis: Technical outlook

After hitting a new year-to-date (YTD) high of 140.72, the USD/JPY retraced somewhat but remains upward biased. Once the USD/JPY cracked the November 30 swing high of 139.89, buyers piled in to break the 140.00 figure despite Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki saying that markets should set currency rates based on economic fundamentals. He stated that he’s watching exchange-rate moves closely.

During Friday’s session, USD/JPY continued and extended its gains, but the pair lost momentum as the New York session began to wind down. However, if USD/JPY extends its gains past 141.00, the next resistance would be the 142.00 figure, ahead of testing the November 22 High at 142.24.

Conversely, the USD/JPY first support would be the 140.00 mark, ahead of falling to November 30 previous resistance turned support at 139.89. A dip below could clear the way for the pair to fall toward December 15 daily high at 138.17 before reaching the 20-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) At 137.26.

USD/JPY Price Action – Daily chart

USD/JPY

Overview
Today last price	140.63
Today Daily Change	0.56
Today Daily Change %	0.40
Today daily open	140.07

Trends
Daily SMA20	136.62
Daily SMA50	134.31
Daily SMA100	133.43
Daily SMA200	137.21

Levels
Previous Daily High	140.23
Previous Daily Low	138.82
Previous Weekly High	138.75
Previous Weekly Low	135.65
Previous Monthly High	136.56
Previous Monthly Low	130.63
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	139.69
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	139.36
Daily Pivot Point S1	139.18
Daily Pivot Point S2	138.3
Daily Pivot Point S3	137.77
Daily Pivot Point R1	140.59
Daily Pivot Point R2	141.12
Daily Pivot Point R3	142

Author

Christian Borjon Valencia

FXStreet

Markets analyst, news editor, and trading instructor with over 14 years of experience across FX, commodities, US equity indices, and global macro markets.

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