USD/JPY: Interesting Market Last Week!

8 thg 10, 2023

A move from ¥150.00 to around ¥147.00 was seen in the space of two minutes last week. As of writing, Japanese officials did not confirm whether an intervention was the cause. Regardless, the sell-off from the ¥150.00 handle was drastic and likely caught many traders and investors off guard.

From the monthly timeframe, the technical picture points to further upside for the currency pair over the coming weeks/months until shaking hands with ¥152.20 resistance. This resistance also shares chart space with channel resistance, extended from the high of ¥125.86.

You may recall that the Research Team released a piece on the USD/JPY’s short-term technical picture last week.

The post noted (italics):

Following yesterday’s spike lower, subsequent price action has seen buyers and sellers squaring off around H1 support at ¥148.69, with a break of here opening the door for another layer of H1 support coming in at ¥148.25.

Technically, given the strength of the buck of late—higher for eleven consecutive weeks—the support area between ¥148.25 and ¥148.69 on the USD/JPY could hold steady and eventually welcome additional bids into the market to challenge the mettle of the ¥150.00 level once again. Any defined breakout north of the aforementioned base could attract breakout buying.

As you can see from the H1 chart, buyers did indeed make their way into the fray from the ¥148.25-¥148.69 support zone, with little resistance stopping price from retesting ¥150.00 again. Therefore, knowing the monthly timeframe exhibits scope to move beyond ¥150.00 to at least ¥152.00, this may see short-term traders bid this market higher this week.