USD/JPY: bulls suffer bearish 4hr MAs

• USD/JPY trading offered in Monday Asia.
• USD/JPY awaiting key events in the US data this week.

After falling from 109.30 to 108.05 and making for a low since Sep 2017 before retracing to 108.80, USD/JPY has been on the offer on Monday, (Japan on holiday), sliding down to a low of 108.51 from a high of 108.89.

USD/JPY has eased back from the 21-hourly SMA and testing ground below the 10-hourly SMA at 108.62 with a very this market with the Japanese holidays and the start of a new week that has little in the way of events other than US retail sales and CPI, - Eyes, instead, will be fixed on yields and equities yet again.

Friday's close

Casting minds back to Friday's close, US equity markets were volatile with the S&P 500 falling almost 2% at one point but closing up 1.5%. In terms of rates, the US 10yr treasury yields were moving int he same fashion as equities, initially falling from 2.86% to 2.79% but recovering to 2.85% (near the multi-year high of 2.88%). As far as the 2yr yields go, they initially tumbled from 2.12% to 2.00% but only partly retraced to 2.07%. "A Fed rate hike on 21 March is still seen as very likely though, above 80% priced into futures markets," analysts at Westpac explained.

The week ahead and key events - Nomura

USD/JPY levels

Valeria Bednarik, chief analyst at FXStreet explained that, technically, the daily chart shows that the pair settled far below its 100 and 200 SMAs, both far above the current level, while the Momentum advances below its 100 level, but the RSI indicator remains close to oversold readings, all of which maintains the risk skewed toward the downside. "In the 4 hours chart, the pair continues developing below bearish moving averages, with the 100 SMA offering a dynamic resistance at 109.50 now, as technical indicators lack directional strength within negative territory, in line with the longer-term perspective," Valeria added.