USDJPY falls below a key support zone: more downside ahead or a rebound into new highs?

Forex Short News

Fundamental Overview

The USD strengthened a bit
on Friday following some positive Trump’s comments on China as Treasury yields
bounced and erased the Thursday’s losses. Overall, the US dollar performance
has been mixed as markets have been driven by quick changes in risk sentiment
since Trump’s tariffs threat.

On the domestic side, the
US government shutdown continues to delay many key US economic reports. The
dollar “repricing trade” needs strong US data to keep going, especially on the
labour market side, so any hiccup on that front is weighing on the greenback.

The BLS will release the US
CPI report on Friday despite the shutdown, so that’s going to be a key risk
event. That will need to be seen in the context of US-China relations and any
negative shock by that time though. If things go south, then the CPI will not
matter much as growth fears will trump everything else.

On the JPY side, the
currency strengthened recently on the risk-off sentiment that got triggered by
Trump’s tariffs threat. Domestically, the LDP party agreed to form a coalition
with the Ishin party paving the way for Takaichi to become Prime Minister. On
the monetary policy side, nothing has changed with traders assigning just a 23%
probability of a rate hike at the October meeting and 45% chance of a rate hike
by year-end.

USDJPY
Technical Analysis – Daily Timeframe

On the daily chart, we can
see that USDJPY broke below the major support zone around the 151.00 handle and
extended the drop into the 149.38 level. We just got a pullback, so we can
expect the sellers to step in on the retest of the support now turned
resistance and position for a fall into the 148.50 support next. The buyers, on
the other hand, will want to see the price breaking higher to invalidate the
bearish setup and pile in for a rally into the 153.00 handle next.

USDJPY Technical
Analysis – 4 hour Timeframe

On the 4 hour chart, we can
see that we have a downward trendline defining the bearish momentum right
around the major resistance zone. Again, this is where we can expect the
sellers to step in to target new lows, while the buyers will look for a break
higher to pile in for a rally into the top trendline.

USDJPY Technical
Analysis – 1 hour Timeframe

On the 1 hour chart, we can
see that we already got a rejection from the resistance. If the price breaks
below the most recent swing low at 150.34, we can expect the sellers to
increase the bearish bets into new lows. The red lines define the average daily range for today.

Upcoming
Catalysts

The focus remains
on the US-China developments but on Friday we will also
get the US CPI report and the US flash PMIs.

Watch the video below

This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at investinglive.com.