USD/JPY opened at Y119.16, and initially held a range of Y118.95 to Y119.19 in a subdued start to the new week. Early risk-off sentiment put yen crosses under pressure and gave the yen a mild boost despite last Friday’s solid US jobs data. Dollar-yen slipped below Y119.00 as euro-yen and aussie-yen all fell, and Japanese accounts were cited as the main players behind the moves lower. The release of Japanese current account and trade data were largely taken in stride by the market, while dollar-yen was also weighed down by the inability of Japanese stocks to hold their opening gains. By the time Japanese stocks closed for lucnh with gains of just 0.19%, dollar-yen was down at the session lows of Y118.77. It extended the low right down to the 55-day moving average at Y118.73 and last traded just off that at Y118.76. Up top, sell orders are layered from Y119.40 to Y119.60 (Japanese exporters and option accounts). Resistance lies at Y119.66 which marks the 76.4% fibo retracement of the Y120.85 to Y115.82 fall, with the next cluster of support then seen around the Y118.50 mark, with demand noted there and the 23.6% retracement level of the pair’s Y115.86 to Y119.22 move coming in below at Y118.43.
