USD/JPY consolidates in a range, just below mid-106.00s

• Global growth concerns continue to underpin JPY’s safe-haven demand.
• Improving risk sentiment seemed to help limit the downside for now.
• A subdued USD price action does little to provide any meaningful impetus.

The USD/JPY pair extended its sideways consolidative price action at the start of a new trading week and remained well within a narrow trading band below mid-106.00s.

Diverging forces fail to provide any impetus

The pair failed to capitalize on last week's goodish recovery attempted from multi-month lows and continues to be weighed down by mounting concerns about slowing global economic growth, which tends to underpin the Japanese Yen's relative safe-haven demand against its American counterpart.
 
Adding to this, persistent uncertainty over a possible resolution to the prolonged US-China trade disputes, especially after the US President Donald Trump said that he was not ready yet to make a trade deal with China, further collaborated towards keeping a lid on any meaningful up-move for the major.
 
However, the negative factors - to a larger extent - were negated by growing expectations that policymakers would unleash new stimulus, which coupled with a bullish trading sentiment around global equity markets helped limit any immediate downside, at least for the time being.
 
Meanwhile, a subdued US Dollar price action did little to influence the price action as market participants now look forward to latest FOMC meeting minutes for a fresh insight over the central bank's near-term monetary policy outlook, which might help determine the pair's next leg of a directional move.
 
Apart from this, the incoming trade-related headlines might continue to play a key role in influencing the pair's momentum ahead of the next big event risk - the Fed Chair Jerome Powell's scheduled speech at the key Jackson Hole Symposium on Friday.

Technical levels to watch