USD/JPY remains bid amid mixed action in Asian stocks
- USD/JPY is currently bid at 108.60, having clocked a high of 108.70 earlier today.
- Asian stocks are lacking a clear directional bias.
- US retail sales bettered estimates on Friday but failed to alter dovish Fed expectations.
USD/JPY is flashing green this Monday morning in Asia amid mixed action in the major Asian indices and aggressive Federal Reserve (Fed) easing expectations.
The currency pair is currently trading at 108.60, having hit a session high of 108.70 a few minutes before press time.
The American Dollar picked up a bid at lows near 108.20 on Friday after the US retail sales bettered estimates, easing concerns of a deeper economic slowdown.
The currency pair closed on a positive note at 108.56 and the follow through has been positive so far with the futures on the S&P 500 reporting 0.30 percent gains.
Asian stocks, however, are wobbling with stocks in Australia and New Zealand flashing 0.26 percent losses at press time, whereas Japan's Nikkei adding 0.60 percent gains. Meanwhile, the Shanghai Composite Index is reporting 0.6 percent gains.
The pair will likely extend gains if the major Asian markets pick up a strong bid, weakening demand for the anti-risk Japanese Yen.
The upside, however, could be capped around 108.80-109.00 as Friday's upbeat US data has not altered market dovish Fed expectations. The implied yield of the January 2020 fed funds futures contract fell half a basis point last week to 1.69%, according to mractomarket.com's Marc Chandler.
Technical levels
Author
Omkar Godbole
FXStreet Contributor
Omkar Godbole, editor and analyst, joined FXStreet after four years as a research analyst at several Indian brokerage companies.
