- SWFX market sentiment is 66% bullish
- Pending orders in the 100-pip range are 55% to SELL
- Nothing on Thursday
The US Dollar regained ground against the Japanese Yen on Thursday. Moreover, the move has broken a previously active pattern and revealed the borders of a new one.
The US private sector created 235K jobs in the reported month, expanding at a slightly slower pace than in January.
At the same time, US non-farm employment change number still surpassed the February's forecast. Ahu Yildirmaz, the Vice President and Co-head of the ADP Research Institute, said that the US labour market is keeping its growth rate uninterrupted and that persistent gains have been seen in industries related to leisure, hospitality and retail.
In expectations of Friday
In regards to macroeconomic data releases on Thursday the day's calendar is empty. The reason for that is the fact that swing traders are focusing on the EUR/USD rather others pairs. Namely, swing traders were expecting the release of the ECB Minimum Bid Rate publication at 12:45 GMT.
Although, there are still events set to occur, which will impact the financial markets from the side of the US Dollar. The official US employment data package is set to be published at 13:30 GMT. The data will consist of the US Average Hourly Earnings, Non-Farm Employment Change and the Unemployment Rate.
Meanwhile, remember that the most notable event, which is set to affect the USD/JPY pair, will be the publication of the BOJ Policy Rate, the Monetary Statement and the following Bank of Japan's press conference on Friday. However, the exact time of the events was still not announced during the early hours of Thursday's trading session.
USD/JPY forms new pattern
Following a reversal from the 105.50 mark during the first part of Wednesday, the US Dollar gathered enough momentum to dash through the 55– and 100-hour SMAs and the upper boundary of a two-week descending channel.This movement resulted in the formation of another junior pattern which is steadily guiding the rate towards the senior channel and the 200-hour SMA near 106.25. It seems that the bullish sentiment is starting to strengthen, thus sending the pair away from the 2017 low of 105.35.
The guidance of the 55– and 100-hour SMA might also help the pair to edge higher within the following trading session.
Thus, the base scenario favours the Greenback moving in line with the newly-formed channel towards 106.70. The nearest resistance is likely to hinder the pair circa 106.25 today.
Hourly Chart
There have been new developments in regards to the massive scale channel down pattern. Namely, after looking closely at the way the reference points for the most dominant channel they were adjusted to the exact high levels of the hourly candles. Meanwhile, the reference for the lower trend line was experimented with.
As a result of the experiment, it was discovered that the lower trend line of the most dominant channel has been reached. This indicates that the initial decline of the US Dollar against the Yen in the first months of 2018 has ended.
Daily chart
SWFX traders are still on the long side, as 66% of open positions were bullish during the morning hours.
However, trader set up orders were no longer neutral, as 56% of trader set up orders were to buy the US Dollar in favour to the Japanese Yen.
Meanwhile, the market sentiment of OANDA traders remains strongly bullish with 68% long positions. In addition, Saxo bank traders are 59% bullish in regards to this pair.
Spreads (avg, pip) / Trading volume / Volatility