USD/JPY struggles to keep 104.00 as Nikkei 225 trims early gains

USD/JPY drops to the intraday low of 104.11as markets in Tokyo open for Monday’s trading. The yen pair justifies the recent weakness in Nikkei 225, Japan’s headline equity index, while parting ways from Friday’s recovery moves.

Nikkei 225 initially rose to 26,887 before declining to 26,750, down 0.02%, within a few minutes of trading. Not only this, but S&P 500 Futures also eases from the record high above 3,700 to presently near 3,694.

The risk barometers seem to have reacted to the Brexit fears while consolidating Friday’s risk-on mood amid a lack of fresh updates on the US stimulus. On Friday, speculations over the American covid aid package gained momentum after November’s employment report marked a heavy drop in the headlines Nonfarm Payrolls to 245K versus 610k in October.

It’s worth mentioning that the vaccine hopes are getting stronger off-late. Russia announced the start of providing the cure to the deadly disease whereas the US and the UK are in the pipeline. Elsewhere, the tussle between the Western leaders and China continues with Australia recently bearing a major burden of it.

Talking about the data, Japan’s November’s Foreign Reserves rose from $1,384.4B to $1,384.6B. On a different page, Bloomberg came out with the news suggesting that the Bank of Japan (BOJ) has taken over as the biggest owner of the nation’s stocks, with the total value of its holdings climbing well above $400 billion.

While the economic calendar is mostly silent during Asia, except China’s trade numbers for November, risk news will be the key for near-term direction. Among them, stimulus, vaccine and virus updates become important to watch.

Technical analysis

Only if the USD/JPY bulls manage to cross a one-month-old falling trend line near 104.50, they can aim for the last week’s peak surrounding 104.75 and the previous month’s high around 105.70. Until then, sellers can keep targeting the mid-November low near 103.65.