The pair opened at Y102.16 early this morning after last Friday’s better-than-expected US non-farm payrolls data lifted the pair to a Y103.02 high. The pair marked an early high of Y102.27 before retreating toward rumored bids at Y102.10. The pair held above that through the early hours of the session amid a lack of strong trading interest due to Golden Week holidays in Japan. The thin trading condition however led to dollar-yen slipping easily through the those bids, and hitting a series of stop-loss sell orders below Y102.00. The pair was also driven lower by a drop in euro-yen following the release of HSBC’s China final PMI, with the cross falling to a Y141.29 low from the earlierY141.90 high as dollar-yen also sank to Y101.86. There has been barely any rebound off that low seen since, with dollar-yen continuing to hold at Y101.90 while the cross was last at Y141.39. For euro-yen, a close below Y140.99 would confirm a break to the downside and shirt the immediate focus to the Y139.96-140.02 region, while the next layer of dollar-yen bids are now seen just slightly lower at Y101.85/80.
