The USD/JPY currency pair was rather volatile during the January 12-16 trading week, while in course of the week it managed to regain losses which were accumulated during first days of the period. The Japanese yen started trading at the 119.22 level, reaching the previous week's highs. On Tuesday, Japanese banks announced data on increasing lending for the last year at the fastest pace in 21 years, reflecting a boost from record Bank of Japan's easing. Bank lending declined 2.6% on an annual basis in December 2014. Nevertheless, the pair fell to one-month lows on Wednesday as oil prices continued to drop amid a wider sell-off in commodities, sparking fears over the global inflation outlook and boosting demand for safe-haven currency. In addition, rather negative announcement came from the Swiss National bank concerning the euro-franc exchange rate which also had a huge impact on the Japanese market. As a result, the pair reached the weekly low at 115.96, but managed to rose towards the end of the week and close it at 117.59.
Compared to the previous week, bullish sentiment decreased marginally by 5%. As a result, the average forecast for pair towards the end of this week went up to 116.70. This week, totally equal number of news are due to be released from both markets, what usually happens very rarely. From Japanese side, the consumer confidence index has been already published and showed a climb to 38.8 points in December, up from 37.7 in the preceding month. Moreover, traders should pay attention to the BoJ‘s press conference, as well as leading economic index and foreign bond investment data releases on Wednesday. From American side, on Wednesday numbers for MBA's mortgage applications are going to be announced, followed by building permits for December.