USD/JPY catching a bid in the Tokyo open, bulls eye 112 handle

Currently, USD/JPY is trading at 111.89, up 0.04% on the day, having posted a daily high at 111.96 and low at 111.77.

Forex today: antipodeans outperform, dollar mixed, US data misses yet again

We are seeing a slight bid in the Tokyo open in USD/JPY, 10 pips higher or so at the time of writing while the BoJ minutes were released just prior to the open. The BoJ minutes revealed that the members agreed that CPI headed towards 2% inflation target but currently lacking strength and there was nothing here that wasn't already included in the summary of opinions that come out very soon after the BoJ's policy meetings.  Markets were then awaiting Kuroda's speech 20 mins after the open but it seems there is nothing on monetary policy. Governor Kuroda is currently speaking at the Global Think Tank Summit 2017 co-hosted by the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) and the University of Pennsylvania, in Yokohama.

Meanwhile, Wall Street was a mixed bag and the markets were somewhat subdued overnight, except for a bid in the antipodeans. "The major stock indexes in the U.S. struggled to make a determined move as the weak macro data was countered by the strong performance of tech shares", explained Eren Sengezer, editor at FXStreet: Wall Street mixed amid weak data and strong tech shares

US data was overall a disappointment and that has weighed on the dollar that was otherwise up only 0.02% inside a week-old narrow range. The IS 10-year is up 0.08% and still above that psychological 2.3% mark having initially dipped from 2.30% to 2.28% in the US session following a mostly disappointing round of US economic data. The yields did manage to recover to 2.34% after US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin talked about the merits of issuing ultralong treasuries, as noted by analysts at Westpac. However, he also said that it could take up to two years to have economic growth reach 3% in the US. 

USD/JPY levels

Valeria Bednarik, chief analyst at FXStreet explained that the 4 hours chart shows that the price advanced further above its 100 and 200 SMAs. "...With the shortest slowly turning higher, but well below the largest one, and technical indicators heading higher within positive territory, supporting additional advances on a break above the mentioned Fibonacci resistance, as the movement will likely trigger some short stops, favoring an advance up to the 112.90 region."