USD/JPY clambers up in Asia despite cooling markets

• USD/JPY up in Tokyo, but downside pressure still mounting.
• BoJ officials working constantly to verbally deflate Yen. 

USD/JPY is up during Tokyo, but trading rough, hesitating at the 109.00 major handle.

Risk aversion is still a popular theme in markets today, but the Yen has eased up a little in Asia trading, as Bank of Japan (BoJ) central planners take turns trying to smooth-talk the Japanese currency down from its powerful position as the safe-haven currency of choice for markets, and that jawboning has begun to take effect, albeit at a much slower pace and scale than the BoJ would surely appreciate.

USD/JPY has revisited the 108.50 level several times in recent weeks, and rhetoric from the BoJ, as well as the ebb-and-flow of risk appetite in the markets, has kept the pair from sinking any lower. But if inflation fears on the back of improving economic data from the US continue to grow, the Yen may find itself the big winner as traders flock out of risk assets and equities cap off their recent gains.

USD/JPY Technicals

The pair continues to trade into support at 108.50, and a break below 107.30 will see USD/JPY trading at its lowest value since November of 2016; reversal from here will be met by resistance at 109.75 and 110.30. Long-term, USD/JPY has been trading in a sideways channel for months now, from 114.30 to 108.30; if the Yen loses steam here, it could easily send the pair up into the channel, assuming it can break through resistance from the 200-day SMA at 111.63.

Today's pivot points:
R2: 110.23
R1: 109.48
PP: 109.03
S1: 108.28
S2: 107.83