USDJPY Technical Analysis – 152.00 is the mother of all levels

Fundamental
Overview

The USD has been rallying
steadily against the major currencies since last Wednesday, although it’s
unclear what has been behind the move. From the monetary policy perspective,
nothing has changed as the market continues to expect at least two rate cuts by
the end of the year and sees some chances of a back-to-back cut in November.

The data continues to
suggest that the US economy remains resilient with inflation slowly falling
back to target. Overall, this should continue to support the soft-landing
narrative and be positive for risk sentiment.

The JPY has been another
winner recently as the Yen strengthened a lot against all the major currencies.
The intervention and the breakout of a key trendline in USDJPY did help, but
fundamentally it doesn’t have much support. It might be some positioning into a
potential BoJ
rate hike and in that case it could be a great “sell the fact” opportunity.

In the big picture, the JPY
in this environment should remain in a downtrend. The Yen will likely need weak
US growth data to see some sustained strength on recessionary fears and more
aggressive rate cuts expectations. But as long as we have stable global growth
and generally positive risk sentiment, the main trend is unlikely to reverse.

USDJPY
Technical Analysis – Daily Timeframe

On the daily chart, we can
see that USDJPY eventually dropped all the way back to the key 152.00 support
zone. This is where we can expect the buyers to step in with a defined risk
below the support to position for a rally into a new cycle high. The sellers,
on the other hand, will want to see the price breaking lower to increase the
bearish bets into new lows.

USDJPY Technical Analysis – 4 hour Timeframe

On the 4 hour chart, we can
see that from a risk management perspective, the sellers will have a better
risk to reward setup around the downward trendline.
The buyers, on the other hand, will want to see the price breaking above the
trendline to gain more conviction and increase the bullish bets into new highs.

USDJPY Technical
Analysis – 1 hour Timeframe

On the 1 hour chart, we can
see that we have another minor downward trendline defining the current bearish
momentum. If we get a pullback into it, we can expect the sellers to lean on it
to position for a break below the support.

The buyers, on the other
hand, will want to see the price breaking above the trendline to increase the
bullish bets into the major trendline. The red lines define the average daily range for today.

Upcoming
Catalysts

Today we will get the latest US Jobless Claims figures and the US Q2 Advance
GDP. Tomorrow, we conclude the week with the Tokyo CPI and the US PCE reports.

This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at www.forexlive.com.