USD/JPY Price Forecast: US Dollar extends advance but stalls near 159.50
- USD/JPY posts consecutive gains after bouncing from 20-day SMA support.
- RSI signals bullish momentum, pointing toward a retest of weekly highs.
- Failure to clear 159.65 keeps focus on downside support levels.
USD/JPY registers back-to-back bullish days on Wednesday after testing key support at the 20-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) around 158.24 on Monday, yet it remains shy of clearing the key weekly high of 159.65 hit on Monday. At the time of writing, the pair trades at 159.27, up 0.36%.
USD/JPY Price Forecast: Technical Outlook
The technical picture suggests that the USD/JPY pair might retest weekly highs in the short term. Momentum, as measured by the Relative Strength Index (RSI), confirms the latter. Still, fears of Japanese authorities intervening in the FX markets could prevent USD bulls from pushing the pair towards the 160.00 milestone.
On the downside, the first area of interest is the 20-day SMA at 158.24. Once surpassed, it opens the door to challenging the March 19 daily low of 157.51, as the 50-day SMA emerges as the next key line of defense for bulls at around 156.56.
On further weakness, the next support would be the 100-day SMA at 156.26, ahead of 156.00.
USD/JPY Price Chart — Daily
Japanese Yen Price This week
The table below shows the percentage change of Japanese Yen (JPY) against listed major currencies this week. Japanese Yen was the strongest against the Canadian Dollar.
| USD | EUR | GBP | JPY | CAD | AUD | NZD | CHF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USD | -0.32% | -0.47% | -0.03% | 0.66% | 0.57% | 0.07% | 0.36% | |
| EUR | 0.32% | -0.14% | 0.33% | 1.00% | 0.89% | 0.40% | 0.70% | |
| GBP | 0.47% | 0.14% | 0.40% | 1.16% | 1.05% | 0.54% | 0.77% | |
| JPY | 0.03% | -0.33% | -0.40% | 0.65% | 0.58% | 0.08% | 0.28% | |
| CAD | -0.66% | -1.00% | -1.16% | -0.65% | -0.07% | -0.58% | -0.31% | |
| AUD | -0.57% | -0.89% | -1.05% | -0.58% | 0.07% | -0.50% | -0.28% | |
| NZD | -0.07% | -0.40% | -0.54% | -0.08% | 0.58% | 0.50% | 0.23% | |
| CHF | -0.36% | -0.70% | -0.77% | -0.28% | 0.31% | 0.28% | -0.23% |
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.
