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Opposite to EUR/USD and GBP/USD crosses, the Dollar/Yen currency pair was clearly moving downwards during five trading days through Aug 21. The period has in turn started in the quite neutral manner, as the Greenback was mostly flat versus its Japanese counterpart until the end of Wednesday, when some signs of an upcoming decline started to appear. Meanwhile, on Monday the Japan's second-quarter economic growth data used to have little impact on the national currency, even despite numbers released better than analysts had projected. Mentioning a drop of Thursday-Friday, it is worth pointing out that there was no fundamental base for losses of the US Dollar, while Thursday's statistical releases were even supportive in that situation. Existing home sales climbed to their highest level since February 2007 of 5.59 million units on the annualized basis. Moreover, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's manufacturing survey showed a rise in activity among the region's producers. Bearish sentiment was created by events Chinese events and devaluation of the Yuan, which increased bets the Fed will postpone a rate rise at least until December of this year.
The survey among Dukascopy Community members shows traders are still widely bearish on the perspectives of the USD/JPY cross, as more than 72% of all votes are negative towards the US Dollar. TRENDMASTER, one of traders who participated in this week's Community Forecasts quiz, says that in the short-term the pair may feel some downside pressure, while the next month a rebound is possible. He thinks that "USD/JPY will continue on downtrend pressure, as risk aversion remains in play. From the technical and trend point of view, price action with pattern completion on the daily time frame, I am expecting an uptrend move next month."
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