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The USD/JPY is strongly sensitive to fundamental news from the both sides, especially the United States. The pair was rising markedly from daily lows on Tuesday as a risk-on session was observed on currency markets. From the Yen point of view, the current account in Japan for November declined from 1,458 billion yen to 1,143 billion yen, while the trade balance returned to deficit from 200.2 billion yen to -271.5 billion yen. Export, in turn, dropped 6.3% year-on-year in November to 5.92 trillion yen, while imports grew from 6.13 trillion yen in October to 6.19 trillion yen in November. The next day, the Japanese yen posted its upside rally, after risk-on sentiment dominated in Asia on Wednesday. Mostly upbeat Chinese trade figures were the largest contributor to the positive sentiment on the markets. Nevertheless, on Friday, volatility was elevated and the pair temporarily traded at the 5-month low after US retail sales disappointed in December. Figures from the Department of Commerce showed that total nominal retail sales fell 0.1% in December, meeting analysts' forecasts.
Traders still believe the pair will continue its depreciation, since only 48% of Dukascopy Community members are bullish. Additionally, AgenthSmith states "The USD/JPY remains under pressure as global stocks are falling. I have no doubt that this pair is going to test 1.05 in the next couple of months.", while sux87 has an opposite opinion and adds that "We should take into account that there is a high probability that there will be strengthening of some currencies against the Yen in the near future".
Some of the Japanese data has already been announced, thus Japanese industrial production posted a decrease of 0.9% in November 2015 while tertiary industry Index went down 0.8% in the same month. From the US side, on Thursday initial jobless claims will be published, while the next day, the markit manufacturing PMI.
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