Yesterday the USDJPY first recovered to the 146 yen range in a significant upward move that took place shortly after GMT 01:30. It then continued to rise, marking a high of 147.90 in the second half of the Tokyo session and knocking on the door of 148 yen.

This may have been due to expectations of an early additional hike in Japanese interest rates fading after comments by Shinichi Uchida, the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Japan, led to intensified selling of the yen.

Today the USDJPY has been trading in the 145-146 range with no clear direction.

Looking at the 1-hour chart of the USDJPY (as of GMT 05:00 on August 8), the Bollinger Bands are contracting, indicating that forward momentum has declined considerably.

(20-period Bollinger Band, showing ±1 and ±2 standard deviations)

Today's main economic indicators are as follows.

• GMT 12:30 U.S. Initial jobless claims for the previous week
• GMT 12:30 U.S. Continuing jobless claims for the previous week