The Japanese yen is steady on Monday, as USD/JPY trades in the mid-114 range early in the North American session. On the release front, Japanese Current Account will be released later in the day. There are no US releases on Monday.
US Nonfarm Payrolls disappointed on Friday, as the key employment indicator slipped to 214 thousand, well short of the estimate of 235 thousand. On a brighter note, the unemployment rate slipped to 5.8%, its lowest level in six years. On Thursday, Unemployment Claims fell to 278 thousand. This was better than the estimate of 285 thousand and marked a three-week low.
On Thursday, the Bank of Japan released the minutes of its previous policy meeting, which took place earlier in October. That event sent the yen tumbling and the currency has yet to recover. At the meeting, the BoJ surprised the markets by increasing monetary stimulus from JPY 60-70 trillion to 80 trillion per year. The Bank said that the move was needed to increase inflation, which remains short of the central bank’s target of 2%. The minutes reiterated concern about low inflation, with some Bank board members noting that inflation levels could fall below 1%, due the global slowdown and weak demand from Japanese consumers.
USD/JPY for Monday, November 10, 2014
USD/JPY November 10 at 13:40 GMT
USD/JPY 114.37 H: 114.53 L: 113.86
USD/JPY Technical
S3 | S2 | S1 | R1 | R2 | R3 |
110.68 | 112.94 | 113.68 | 114.65 | 115.75 | 116.66 |
- USD/JY lost ground in the Asian session but has recovered in European trade.
- 114.65 is a weak resistance line. 115.75 is stronger.
- 113.68 is providing support. 112.94 is next.
- Current range: 113.68 to 114.65
Further levels in both directions:
- Below: 113.68, 112.94, 110.68, 109.82 and 108.58
- Above: 114.65, 115.75, 116.66 and 117.94
OANDA’s Open Positions Ratio
USD/JPY is pointing to gains in long positions on Monday. This is not consistent with the lack of movement shown by the pair. The ratio currently has a majority of long positions, indicative of trader bias towards USD/JPY breaking out of range and moving upwards.
USD/JPY Fundamentals
- 23:50 Japanese Current Account. Estimate JPY 0.03T.
*Key releases are highlighted in bold
*All release times are GMT
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