• The global flight to safety continues to underpin JPY and exerts downward pressure.
• Bearish traders seemed rather unaffected by bullish USD/upbeat US economic data.
• Trade-related headlines might continue to drive the broader market risk sentiment.
The bid tone surrounding the safe-haven Japanese Yen picked up the pace in the last hour, with the USD/JPY pair momentarily slipping below the key 110.00 psychological mark.
With the US-China trade tensions once again dominating headlines, worsening fears over the global economic outlook continued weighing on investors' risk appetite and the same was evident from a sea of red across equity markets.
The global flight to safety was further reinforced by the ongoing slump in the US Treasury bond yields, which boosted the Japanese Yen's relative safe-haven status and exerted some fresh downward pressure on the major.
The pair witnessed a follow-through selling for the second consecutive session on Thursday and has now erased this week's positive move to two-week tops that came after the US granted a temporary exemption to Huawei ban.
Bearish traders seemed rather unaffected by the recent US Dollar rally to near two-year tops, which remained supported by the fact that the FOMC meeting minutes reaffirmed the central bank's patient stance on interest rates.
On the economic data front, better than expected initial weekly jobless claims data from the US did little to influence the price action, albeit now seemed to be the only factor helping limit further losses, at least for the time being.
Technical outlook
As Valeria Bednarik, FXStreet's own American Chief Analyst writes: “The USD/JPY pair is bearish according to the 4 hours chart, as it broke below the 61.8% retracement of the latest daily run, also below the 20 and 100 SMA which stand together a couple of pips above the mentioned Fibonacci level, this last at 110.20.”
“Technical indicators in the mentioned chart have entered negative territory, maintaining their downward slopes. The same chart shows that the pair so far found support at the 50% retracement of the mentioned rally in the 109.90 price zone, with a break below the level most likely anticipating further declines ahead,” she added further.
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