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The Yen opened week in a strong bullish territory versus the Dollar, pushing the pair to 118 level, however, the upward tendency was temporal. The next day, pair reached its lowest point since November, mainly, due to the slowing growth in Chine and plummeting equity indices. Apart from an absence of any Japanese economic data, the pair experienced some technical trading, with a moderate volatility around 114.60 yen and traders, prepared for Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's Monetary Policy meeting. On Thursday, the Yen the pair dropped to 15-month low, after Fed's Chairwoman announced the state of the economy and monetary policy before the House Financial Services Committee, as well as indicated, that the next rate hike will be a long time coming. Eventually, the pair regained some ground on Friday after forecast beating US retail sales figures for January supported the view that the Federal Reserve is likely to stay on a tightening path as other world central banks ease monetary policy. According to the Commerce Department, retail sales advanced 0.2% for the preceding month, beating expectations for a rise of 0.1%
The pair closed the week on the rather negative note at 113.4 back on Friday, February 19.
This week traders' expectations divided, as now 50% of Dukascopy Community members estimate the pair to gain in value. The next week is not expected to be rich on Japanese economic announcements nevertheless, traders still could pay additional attention to the export and import data announcments on Wednesday. From the American side, in the same day, the housing starts, building permits and industrial production data will be released. On Friday, in turn, the US is going to publish consumer price index data.
© Dukascopy Bank SA