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The USD/JPY currency pair was back in the 141.00 handle as the duo struggled to accelerate momentum in either direction as markets closed up the 2023 trading year. Post-holiday markets saw a thin week ahead of the New Year’s long weekend, and the US dollar was down 0.3% against the Japanese yen for the last Friday of the trading year, shedding a full percentage point on the week.US economic data seemingly continued 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, well below the median market forecast of 51.0.Steepening misses in US data figures may be counter-intuitively supportive of broad-market risk appetite, with investors expecting souring economic outlooks across the globe to help to push the Federal Reserve towards a faster pace of rate cuts in 2024.
USD/JPY Technical Outlook
As the USD/JPY currency pair has been up around 7% on the year compared to being in the red for the month of 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 pair has closed in the red for all but one of the last seven consecutive trading weeks, and the pair has been 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
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