On Thursday, the USD/JPY currency pair pulled back off the session highs of about 149.52 to trade at about 148.56. The currency pair trades within a slightly descending channel formation in the 60-minute chart.

The pair has now pulled back to trade at the 100-hour moving average line. Thursday’s pullback pushed the currency pair closer to the oversold levels of the 14-hour RSI.

USD/JPY Fundamentals Overview

From a fundamental perspective, the USD/JPY currency pair trades during a relatively busy period in the U.S. market. On Thursday, the U.S. initial jobless claims for the week ending October 4 came in significantly higher than expected with 258k versus the estimate of 230k, higher than 225k reported in the previous week. The continuing claims for the preceding week were also higher with 1.861 million versus a forecast of 1.83 million.

Elsewhere, the U.S. consumer price index for September beat the expectation of 0.1% with a rate of 0.2% (MoM), unchanged from August. The (YoY) equivalent edged slightly lower to 2.4%, down from 2.5%, also beating the forecast of 2.3%. On the other hand, the consumer price index ex-food and energy beat rose to 3.3% (YoY) from 3.2% in August, beating the forecast of 3.2%, while the (YoY) equivalent was unchanged at 0.3%, ahead of the forecasted rate of 0.2%.

In Japan, labour cash earnings for August missed the (YoY) expectation of 3.1% with a change of 3%, down from the previous month’s equivalent of 3.4%.

USD/JPY Technical Analysis (the 60-min Chart)

Technically, the USD/JPY currency pair trades within a descending channel formation in the 60-minute chart. The 14-hour RSI also supports a bearish bias as it moves closer to oversold conditions.

Therefore, the bears will target extended declines at about 147.51 or lower at 146.43. On the other hand, the bulls will look to pounce on rebounds at about 149.51 or higher at 150.59.

USD/JPY Technical Analysis (the Daily Chart)

In the daily chart, the USD/JPY currency pair trades within an ascending channel formation. The 14-day RSI also seems to support a bullish bias as it edges closer to overbought conditions.

Therefore, the bulls will look to stretch the current run of gains toward 153.14 or higher to 157.93. On the other hand, the bears will look to pounce on pullbacks at about 144.14 or lower at 139.49.