USD/JPY daily chart
I think where USD/JPY ends up trading today will be one to be mindful about for markets and dollar sentiment in particular. The BOJ disappointment is keeping hopes alive for a push above the 150.00 level but so far, buyers are still remaining rather tentative.
The pair hit a high of 150.30 earlier as Ueda spoke and is trading just below that now. Ueda’s remarks have been nothing surprising, as he reinforces the notion that the BOJ still has some ways to go before normalising policy and they can’t yet abandon yield curve control and negative interest rates for now.
If Tokyo intends to curb pressure on the yen currency, this is not the way to do it. As such, I reckon this is once again a yellow light for USD/JPY to push above 150.00 so long as the pace of the jump isn’t too quick.
That being said, we’ve been stuck in this conversation for almost an entire month now and at some point, it could prove to be too draggy and the risk-reward for being long USD/JPY is starting to look rather unattractive. If you pair that with a lack of breakout in 10-year Treasury yields yet, we could see buyers get exhausted and decide to move to the sidelines temporarily.