Despite that, the pair is just down 0.3% or roughly 40 pips to around 143.70 at the moment. The low earlier clipped 142.50 before a slight bounce. As things stand, the more important technical levels in play were the ones tested in trading yesterday:
USD/JPY daily chart
That being the 38.2 Fib retracement level at 142.47 and the 200-day moving average (blue line), currently seen at 142.31 on the day. The drop this week will mark the fourth straight weekly decline for USD/JPY, for only the second time this year.
The question is, can sellers break below the key support levels highlighted above? It’s not only the volatile yen side of the equation to consider today but we’ll also have the US non-farm payrolls data to impact the dollar side of the equation.
Things are certainly heating up ahead of the Fed and BOJ policy meeting decisions this month.