USD/JPY Price Forecast: Bears defend 159.00, eye a close below 158.00

USD/JPY drops sharply as geopolitics boost Yen safe-haven demand.
Bearish engulfing risk rises if price closes below the 20-day SMA.
Break under 157.50 exposes 157.00 and 156.16 support levels.

Christian Borjon Valencia FXStreet

The Japanese Yen (JPY) begins the week on a strong foot as USD/JPY falls some 0.67% on Monday amid an improvement in risk appetite, following the White House's delay of attacks on Iran for five days and its claim that the US had "very productive" talks with Tehran. At the time of writing, the pair trades at 158.06.

USD/JPY Price Forecast: Technical Outlook

Last Friday, the USD/JPY technical picture was bullish-biased, but the sudden reversal on Monday could open the door to a test of the next key support at 156.46, the March 5 swing low.

Momentum remains bullish but appears to be fading, as indicated by a falling Relative Strength Index (RSI) that is about to clear the 50-neutral level.

If USD/JPY closes the day below the 20-day SMA at 157.91, it would form a bearish engulfing pattern, clearing the way for further downside. The next support would be 157.50, followed by the 157.00 figure, the March 5 cycle low at 156.46, and the 100-day SMA at 156.16. Below this level, the next area of interest is the February 23 daily low at 153.99.

On the upside, bulls must climb back above 159.00 if they want to remain hopeful of challenging the 160.00 milestone.

USD/JPY Price Chart – Daily

Japanese Yen Price Today

The table below shows the percentage change of Japanese Yen (JPY) against listed major currencies today. Japanese Yen was the strongest against the US Dollar.

	USD	EUR	GBP	JPY	CAD	AUD	NZD	CHF
USD		-0.47%	-0.77%	-0.71%	-0.09%	-0.01%	-0.68%	-0.35%
EUR	0.47%		-0.30%	-0.20%	0.42%	0.59%	-0.22%	0.12%
GBP	0.77%	0.30%		0.09%	0.73%	0.89%	0.08%	0.41%
JPY	0.71%	0.20%	-0.09%		0.64%	0.70%	-0.03%	0.35%
CAD	0.09%	-0.42%	-0.73%	-0.64%		0.06%	-0.72%	-0.31%
AUD	0.00%	-0.59%	-0.89%	-0.70%	-0.06%		-0.80%	-0.38%
NZD	0.68%	0.22%	-0.08%	0.03%	0.72%	0.80%		0.36%
CHF	0.35%	-0.12%	-0.41%	-0.35%	0.31%	0.38%	-0.36%

The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the Japanese Yen from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the US Dollar, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent JPY (base)/USD (quote).

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.

GBP/USD clings to multi-day peaks below 1.3500

GBP/USD trades with marked gains on Friday, now giving away some gains following an earlier surpass of the key 1.3500 yardstick. Indeed, Cable gathers fresh steam amid the strong offered stance in the Greenback, all after US NFP badly missed expectations in July.

EUR/USD: Post-NFP bounce falters around 1.1580

EUR/USD reverses Thursday’s decline and trades with solid gains in the 1.1560 region, or two-month peaks, on Friday. The pair’s firm performance comes in a context of a sharp correction in the US Dollar as investors continue to assess disheartening US NFP readings.

How Wall Street rigs the game [Video]

In this week’s Live from the Vault, Andrew Maguire is joined by Peter Antico and Sean Stone to discuss the Paradigm of Money - an in-depth expose of financial market corruption, from naked shorting to the two-tier system that protects Wall Street.

XRP Price Forecast: XRP nears critical $1.00 support

Ripple (XRP) remains pressured on Friday, trading around $1.03 at the time of writing. The token appears to hold this current level as support but lacks a catalyst to sustain a knee-jerk rebound toward the next key resistance at $1.10.

Is Gold about to enter its biggest bull run since 2020?

Gold has stormed back into the spotlight and its next move could leave late buyers chasing. On August 5, the yellow metal surged almost 7% – roughly $174 – to close near $4,308 an ounce, posting one of its biggest daily advances in recent history. A weaker U.S dollar, falling Treasury yields, changing Federal Reserve expectations and renewed safe-haven demand all struck at once.

9-3: Is the Federal Reserve’s vote tally Warsh's new forward guidance?

The rate did not move. Neither did the statement, and that’s the more interesting fact. Set the July 29 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) statement beside the one issued on June 17, and the two documents are identical apart from a single verb and a paragraph at the bottom naming three dissenters.