USDJPY Movement
For the 24 hours to 23:00 GMT, the USD weakened 1.18% against the JPY and closed at 111.39.
Yesterday, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) Governor, Haruhiko Kuroda, indicated that domestic inflation had slowed temporarily due to plunging oil prices, but the overall price trend showed improvement.
In the Asian session, at GMT0400, the pair is trading at 111.25, with the USD trading 0.12% lower from yesterday’s close.
Overnight, minutes of the Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) January 28-29 policy meeting showed that bank officials explored an expansion of the already-massive asset purchase programme and an introduction of negative rates, before they decided to choose the latter option. The decision to adopt negative rates was passed by a 5-4 vote. Further, the BoJ expressed concerns about the ongoing financial market turbulence and the slowdown in emerging economies which could have adverse ripple effects on the domestic economy.
The pair is expected to find support at 110.36, and a fall through could take it to the next support level of 109.47. The pair is expected to find its first resistance at 112.44, and a rise through could take it to the next resistance level of 113.64.
Going ahead, market participants will look forward to Japan’s national consumer price inflation, Nikkei manufacturing PMI and all industry activity index, scheduled to release next week.
The currency pair is showing convergence with its 20 Hr moving average and is trading below its 50 Hr moving average.