The pair opened at Y118.29 and spent the early hours within an initial Y118.24 to Y118.43 range in the early Asia-Pacific hours. Initial attention was on a slew of Japanese data releases, including CPI, unemployment and industrial output data. The first batch of data were largely ignored and dollar-yen continued to hold near Y118.36. It gained further as the market pre-empted a strong open for Japanese stocks, with dollar-yen striking a high of Y118.47. But the move stalled despite a rise in Japanese stocks, and exporter offers then pushed the pair back down again, a move which was believed to be linked to month-end fixing demand for yen. Dollar-yen traded down to Y118.14 initially and then extended the low to Y118.10. A break below that then tripped over some stop-loss selling and dollar-yen dropped to Y117.90 low before running out of steam. The pair was last at Y118.02. Immediate resistance is noted from around Y118.86 to Y119.00 with sell orders also noted there and stops beginning to build above Y119.00.
