Today we would take a look at the USD/JPY currency pair. After about a week and a half of decline, the yen was able to rally and since the beginning of June the pair has been increasing in price.
As usual, the American dollar continues to be supported by strong economic statistics from the US. It is expected that the Federal Reserve will soon reveal plans about their next interest rate increase. Nevertheless, at present all news surrounding the USD is dominated by politics. Trump’s administration has announced that it would slap tariffs on imports from many countries, the particularly heated dispute with China is on-going, and the President is set to attend the G7 summit this week. All of these events are pressuring the dollar, not to mention the uncertainty regarding next week’s meeting with Kim Jong-un. Amid the current political climate the dollar index is decreasing slightly and currencies have made modest gains against it.
The outlook for the Japanese yen is somewhat neutral. Economic statistics from Japan fail to impress investors. The country is still struggling to achieve target inflation levels. The Bank of Japan recently decreased its bond purchases, but the markets did not react to this hawkish move at all. Overall, we are not likely to see an end to the stimulus measures until inflation increases, and until then the most important factor for boosting the yen is global risk. Again, watch out for the summit between the United States and North Korea next week, which will likely have an impact on the JPY.
In terms of the daily chart today we have a pivot point for the USD/JPY pair located at 108.08, with the pair currently trading slightly below it. We expect the yen to overcome it, so look towards the resistances at 110.38 and 110.58. In case the dollar overtakes the yen once more, beware of the nearby support levels at 109.88 and 109.58. The indicators of technical analysis agree on a strong buy signal this time around.
