© Dukascopy bank SA
During the trading week ended December 19, the USD/JPY pair was developing in a rather calm manner. The pair started the trading week at the 118.61 level and Dollar remained moderately lower against the Yen on Monday, despite the release of upbeat US industrial production data, which soared 1.3%, while Markit manufacturing PMI, in turn, decreased to 53.7 points. However, the Greenback traded largely lower against most major currencies on Tuesday, after data revealed new homes' construction in the US came in worse than expected in November. Moreover, the yen hit a one-month high on Tuesday, as investors bought safe-haven currencies amid a slide in oil prices. Nevertheless, the Dollar received a boost, following statistics that showed Japan's exports growing weaker than forecasted by 4.9% in November. Trade balance data for the same month showed, in turn, a deficit of 891.9 billion yen, less than the one trillion yen expected. The Dollar continued to climb against Japan's currency on Friday, when the Bank of Japan decided to maintain the level of its stimulus program at 80 trillion yen annually, without changing the benchmark interest rate at 0.1%.
Distribution between bullish and bearish votes improved considerably in favor of the former this week, as long votes reached 84%, which expect the American dollar to advance. The average prediction for December 30, however, is placed around the 119.5 level. The upcoming working week is supposed to be unusually rich on Japanese data. Among important news from this country, traders can wait for national CPI, unemployment rate, foreign bond investment and industrial production, which due to be released on Thursday, followed by labor cash earnings a day later. At the same time, USD traders can look at durable goods orders and annualized GDP, which both are due to be released on Tuesday.
© Dukascopy bank SA