It’s a brand new week, month, quarter, half-year for markets but this is a bit of a familiar story. It is one that we already went through during October last year, with just a different handle for USD/JPY. The pair is up 0.2% today to 144.60 and all eyes are continuing to watch for whether there is appetite to surge past 145.00 in more strong fashion.
USD/JPY daily chart
There has been little jawboning by Japanese officials today on the verbal front but one can expect them to keep that up in the days to come. The real question is when do they really draw a hard line and say enough is enough.
A lot of traders are seeing it in and around the range of 145 to 150, with the latter definitely going to invite stronger conviction by Japanese officials – similar to what we saw last year. But essentially, we’re thereabouts already and unless there is a solid reason for buyers to try and test the resolve of Japanese officials, we might just a little poke and prod at 145.00 for now to start the new week.