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USD/JPY pinned to the low side near 141.00 as markets close out 2023

  • USD/JPY stuck to 141.00 as markets head towards 2024.
  • Greenback shed a third of a percent against the Yen on the last Friday of 2023.
  • USD/JPY down a full percent on the week, but up 7% on the year.

The USD/JPY is back into the 141.00 handle as the pair struggles to accelerate momentum in either direction as markets wind up the 2023 trading year.

Post-holiday markets saw a thin week ahead of the New Year’s long weekend, and the US Dollar (USD) is down 0.3% against the Japanese Yen (JPY) for the last Friday of the trading year, shedding a full percentage point on the week.

Forex Today: A new year arrives, focus turns to US labor market data

US economic data continues to miss the mark with the US Chicago Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) printing below expectations on Friday, coming into at a contractionary 46.9 in December compared to November’s 18-month peak of 55.8, coming in well below the median market forecast of 51.0.

Steepening misses in US data figures are counter-intuitively supportive of broad-market risk appetite, with investors expecting souring economic outlooks across the globe helping to push the Federal Reserve (Fed) towards a faster pace of rate cuts in 2024.

USD/JPY Technical Outlook

With the USD/JPY up around 7% on the year compared to being in the red for December, the last few trading weeks of 2023 have been particularly Dollar-negative, and there is little technical reason for the trend to reverse direction heading into 2024.

The pair etched in a yearly high of 151.91 in November, coming within inches of October 2022’s peak bids of 151.94 before slumping back toward the 140.00 major handle.

The USD/JPY has closed in the red for all but one of the last seven consecutive trading weeks, and the pair is extending a push into bear country on the south end of the 200-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) near 143.00.

USD/JPY Hourly Chart

USD/JPY Daily Chart

USD/JPY Technical Levels

USD/JPY

Overview
Today last price140.98
Today Daily Change-0.39
Today Daily Change %-0.28
Today daily open141.37
 
Trends
Daily SMA20143.97
Daily SMA50147.52
Daily SMA100147.59
Daily SMA200142.98
 
Levels
Previous Daily High141.89
Previous Daily Low140.25
Previous Weekly High144.96
Previous Weekly Low141.86
Previous Monthly High151.91
Previous Monthly Low146.67
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%140.88
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%141.26
Daily Pivot Point S1140.45
Daily Pivot Point S2139.53
Daily Pivot Point S3138.81
Daily Pivot Point R1142.09
Daily Pivot Point R2142.81
Daily Pivot Point R3143.73

Author

Joshua Gibson

Joshua joins the FXStreet team as an Economics and Finance double major from Vancouver Island University with twelve years' experience as an independent trader focusing on technical analysis.

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