USD/JPY picked up the pace in Tokyo, fresh highs scored on 113 handle

Currently, USD/JPY is trading at 113.22, down -0.03% on the day, having posted a daily high at 113.31 and low at 113.11.

USD/JPY opened in Tokyo flat within a tight range of between 113.14-113.30 with a return of -3.15% to date for 2017withina 52WK range of between 99.02 and 118.66. The Macron trade fell over pretty much on the announcements and markets dropped while the yen lost its safe haven demand. In fact, as Tokyo got going halfway through the hour and up to challenge the highs in the US shift, (Kuroda hitting the dovish wires as per below). Stocks were showing little life overnight but there were small gains on Wall Street and the market today is following that lead.

BOJ’s Kuroda – Need to continue powerful monetary easing

There were little data impacts overnight, albeit some Fed talk that was less than positive in some respects from Bullard. However, Mester was more hawkish and claimed that the economy has pretty much achieved Fed's goals, underpinning the consensus that the Fed will indeed hike in June and possibly again in 2017, if not two further hikes should the data improve significantly. 

USD/JPY levels

Valeria Bednarik, chief analyst at FXStreet explained in the 4 hours chart, "the 100 and 200 SMAs converge around 110.70, while technical indicators have turned north, with the Momentum still within neutral territory and the RSI around  65, enough at least, to keep the downside limited. Early March lows in the 113.60 region provide a critical resistance that needs to be broken before a steeper recovery." Meanwhile, analysts at Commerzbank explained that they will need to clear this cloud resistance to set up a run at the 115.51/62 mid-January high. Intraday Elliott waves counts suggest that we should allow for a retracement to approx 112.00/111.30."