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USD/JPY Price Forecast: Pair tops 159.00 but upside capped by intervention fears

  • USD/JPY clears 159.00 after bouncing from 50-day SMA support.
  • RSI remains bullish, but fears of intervention cap upside momentum.
  • A break below 159.00 exposes the 158.78 and 157.62 support levels.

The USD/JPY pair recovers some ground on Tuesday, rising over 0.25% as buyers ignore the intervention zone, clearing 159.00 and aiming to challenge the 159.50 area. At the time of writing, the pair trades at 159.38.

USD/JPY Price Forecast: Technical outlook

Price action shows USD/JPY is poised to consolidate further within the 159.00-160.00 area, with further upside expected after the pair bounced off the 50-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) at 158.79, extending its gains past 159.00.

Momentum, although bullish with the Relative Strength Index (RSI) above its 50-neutral level, remains capped by fears for a possible intervention by Japanese authorities in the FX markets.

On the downside, if USD/JPY moves below 159.00, traders could eye the 50-day SMA at 158.78. Below this level lies the 100-day SMA at 157.62, ahead of the May 6 low of 155.04.

USD/JPY Price Chart – Daily

USD/JPY daily chart

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 New Zealand Dollar.

USDEURGBPJPYCADAUDNZDCHF
USD0.13%0.43%0.25%0.07%0.06%0.61%0.36%
EUR-0.13%0.34%0.15%-0.02%-0.03%0.51%0.24%
GBP-0.43%-0.34%-0.17%-0.36%-0.36%0.17%-0.08%
JPY-0.25%-0.15%0.17%-0.17%-0.17%0.34%0.13%
CAD-0.07%0.02%0.36%0.17%0.01%0.54%0.29%
AUD-0.06%0.03%0.36%0.17%-0.01%0.53%0.29%
NZD-0.61%-0.51%-0.17%-0.34%-0.54%-0.53%-0.25%
CHF-0.36%-0.24%0.08%-0.13%-0.29%-0.29%0.25%

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

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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