USD/JPY steady on Friday after another week of gains

US Dollar broadly eased on Friday, but held close to flat against Yen.
Japanese National CPI inflation ticked lower in April.
Risk appetite recovered after US consumer inflation outlook improved.

Joshua Gibson FXStreet

USD/JPY churned on Friday, wrapping up close to where it started the day, just below the 157.00 handle, as investors looked to recover balance after a tense week.

Broad hopes for a September rate cut from the Federal Reserve (Fed) were knocked back this week after rate markets repriced odds of at least a quarter-point cut in September to less than even. Rate markets were pricing in upwards of 70% odds of a 25-basis-point trim in September at the start of the week.

Forecasting the Coming Week: Fedspeak and PCE remain in the spotlight

Japan’s National Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation eased to 2.5% YoY in April, but the Bank of Japan (BoJ) remains bitterly determined to hold interest rates at rock-bottom, near-negative levels until they see an expected downturn in inflation hold above 2%. The BoJ currently expects CPI inflation to slump below 2.0% through 2025 and some of 2026.

With the BoJ squarely focused on fears of disinflation, depressed Japanese interest rates continue to erode the Yen. The BoJ and Japan’s Ministry of Finance is widely believed to have directly intervened in global markets in early May, and the BoJ’s financial operations reporting reveal a nine trillion Yen gap between reported operations spending and broker forecasts, adding weight to “Yentervention” speculation.

Despite operations in global markets, the Yen continues to shed weight, and Yen-based pairs are grinding back towards record highs.

USD/JPY technical outlook

USD/JPY cycled the 157.00 handle on Friday, churning chart paper close to near-term highs. USD/JPY has closed in the green for all but three of the last 15 consecutive trading days, recovering from a post-”Yentervention” low near 152.00.

The pair is still trading down from multi-year highs set in late April above 160.00, but USD/JPY continues to drift deeper into bull country above the 200-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at 149.13.

USD/JPY hourly chart

USD/JPY daily chart

USD/JPY

Overview
Today last price	156.97
Today Daily Change	0.04
Today Daily Change %	0.03
Today daily open	156.93

Trends
Daily SMA20	155.7
Daily SMA50	153.78
Daily SMA100	151.06
Daily SMA200	149.24

Levels
Previous Daily High	157.2
Previous Daily Low	156.53
Previous Weekly High	156.79
Previous Weekly Low	153.6
Previous Monthly High	160.32
Previous Monthly Low	150.81
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	156.94
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	156.78
Daily Pivot Point S1	156.57
Daily Pivot Point S2	156.22
Daily Pivot Point S3	155.9
Daily Pivot Point R1	157.24
Daily Pivot Point R2	157.55
Daily Pivot Point R3	157.9

Author

Joshua Gibson

FXStreet

Joshua joins the FXStreet team as an Economics and Finance double major from Vancouver Island University with twelve years' experience as an independent trader focusing on technical analysis.

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