USD/JPY trades close to more than three-decade high of 152.00, Fed Powell’s speech eyed

USD/JPY hovers near historic highs around 152.00 ahead of Fed Powell’s speech.
The US ADP Employment report for March has indicated that private labor demand remains strong.
Investors remain uncertain over Japan’s wage growth spiral.

Sagar Dua FXStreet

The USD/JPY pair rebounds to historic highs of 152.00 in Wednesday’s early American session. The asset is expected to extend its upside by easing expectations that the Federal Reserve (Fed) will begin reducing interest rates from the June meeting.

Fed policymakers don’t see any urgency for rate cuts as labor market conditions are tight and the economic outlook is strong. On Tuesday, Cleveland Fed Bank President Loretta Mester said that the central bank sees more risk in cutting interest rates too early. Fed Mester added: “With labor markets and economic growth both being very solid, we do not need to take that risk”. At the same time, she sees three rate cuts as “reasonable” this year.

Meanwhile, the United States ADP reported upbeat employment data for March. The agency reported that private employers hired 184K new workers against expectations of 148K and the prior reading of 155K (revised up from 140K).

Going forward, investors will focus on Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's speech, which is expected at 16:10 GMT. Powell is expected to provide cues about when the central bank will pivot to rate cuts.

Meanwhile, the Japanese Yen is broadly weak as investors lack confidence that the Bank of Japan (BoJ) will tighten its policy sooner due to uncertainty over the wage growth spiral. Investors seem to have digested fears of Japan’s intervention in the FX domain to support the Japanese Yen.

USD/JPY

Overview
Today last price	151.87
Today Daily Change	0.31
Today Daily Change %	0.20
Today daily open	151.56

Trends
Daily SMA20	149.94
Daily SMA50	149.54
Daily SMA100	147.61
Daily SMA200	146.96

Levels
Previous Daily High	151.8
Previous Daily Low	151.46
Previous Weekly High	151.97
Previous Weekly Low	151.03
Previous Monthly High	151.97
Previous Monthly Low	146.48
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	151.59
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	151.67
Daily Pivot Point S1	151.42
Daily Pivot Point S2	151.27
Daily Pivot Point S3	151.08
Daily Pivot Point R1	151.75
Daily Pivot Point R2	151.94
Daily Pivot Point R3	152.09

Author

Sagar Dua

FXStreet

Sagar Dua is associated with the financial markets from his college days. Along with pursuing post-graduation in Commerce in 2014, he started his markets training with chart analysis.

AUD/USD hits nine-week lows below 0.7000 on RBA Bullock's remarks

AUD/USD reverses a brief uptick and turns lower to hit nine-week lows below 0.7000 in the European morning on Tuesday, as traders digest cautious remarks from Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Michele Bullock during the press conference. Earlier on, the RBA raised the cash rate to 4.60%, as widely expected, leaving the door open to further rate hikes if needed.

USD/JPY consolidates near 157.50 as a bullish USD counters intervention risks

USD/JPY struggles to capitalize on the overnight bounce from a one-week low, consolidating around 157.50 in the Asian session on Tuesday. Trump's concerns about the Japanese Yen's weakness fueled speculation about another US-Japan joint intervention. This, along with the hawkish BoJ, underpins the JPY and caps the currency pair. Meanwhile, rising Fed rate-hike bets and oil-driven inflation fears continue to push US bond yields to multi-year highs, keeping the US Dollar pinned near a two-month high and supporting the pair.

Gold regains some traction; focus remains on $4,100

Gold manages to gather some composure and bounces off recent lows near the key $4,100 mark per troy ounce on Tuesday. The move higher in the precious metal comes despite the firmer US Dollar and rising US Treasury yields across the board, while escalating geopolitical tensions appear to limit the downside potential.