USD/JPY reclaims 148.00 in reaction to BoJ's decision to maintain status quo

USD/JPY attracts fresh buying on Friday and maintains its bid tone after the BoJ policy decision.
The Japanese central bank left monetary policy setting unchanged and offered no forward guidance.
The Fed's hawkish outlook continues to underpin the USD and remains supportive of the move up.

Haresh Menghani FXStreet

The USD/JPY pair regains positive traction during the Asian session on Friday and the buying interest picks up pace after the Bank of Japan (BoJ) announced its policy decision. Spot prices climb back above the 148.00 mark in the last hour and remain well within the striking distance of the YTD peak touched on Thursday.

The Japanese central bank, as was widely anticipated, decided to leave its monetary policy settings unchanged and fell short of offering any forward guidance. This marks a big divergence in comparison to the Federal Reserve's (Fed) hawkish outlook, which continues to underpin the US Dollar (USD) and acts as a tailwind for the USD/JPY pair. The Fed signalled the possibility of at least one more rate hike by the end of this year and the updated projections show significantly tighter rates through 2024 than previously expected.

This, along with an unexpected drop in the US Weekly Jobless Claims, pushes the yield on the rate-sensitive two-year US government bond to a fresh 17-year peak. Moreover, the 10-year US Treasury yield climbs to the highest since November 2007 and continues to underpin the Greenback. That said, the possibility of the Japanese government intervening in foreign exchange markets might hold back bullish traders from placing fresh bets around the USD/JPY pair.

In fact, the government's top spokesperson issued a fresh warning against the recent JPY weakness and said on Thursday that Japan will not rule out any options in addressing excess volatility in currency markets. Investors might also prefer to wait on the sidelines and look to BoJ Governor Kazuo Ueda's comments for a possible shift in the dovish stance.

Technical levels to watch

USD/JPY

Overview
Today last price	148.04
Today Daily Change	0.45
Today Daily Change %	0.30
Today daily open	147.59

Trends
Daily SMA20	147.09
Daily SMA50	144.54
Daily SMA100	142.3
Daily SMA200	137.58

Levels
Previous Daily High	148.46
Previous Daily Low	147.32
Previous Weekly High	147.95
Previous Weekly Low	145.9
Previous Monthly High	147.38
Previous Monthly Low	141.51
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	147.76
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	148.03
Daily Pivot Point S1	147.12
Daily Pivot Point S2	146.65
Daily Pivot Point S3	145.98
Daily Pivot Point R1	148.26
Daily Pivot Point R2	148.93
Daily Pivot Point R3	149.4

Author

Haresh Menghani

FXStreet

Haresh Menghani is a detail-oriented professional with 10+ years of extensive experience in analysing the global financial markets.

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