Following the extraordinarily good figures for U.S. retail sales for July that were announced yesterday at GMT 12:30, the USDJPY soared from the 147-yen range to the 149-yen range.

Retail sales came in at 1.0% month on month compared to a forecast of 0.3%, while retail sales excluding autos were 0.4% month on month against a forecast of 0.1%.

In addition, unemployment claims for the previous week decreased.

Today there is a sense of the USDJPY having stalled after yesterday's sharp rise, and the market has fallen gradually from the open. The price has already broken below the 149-yen level.

Looking at the 1-hour chart of the USDJPY (as of GMT 03:00 on August 16), while moving mostly sideways the price has broken through the +1 standard deviation of the Bollinger Bands and is approaching the middle line.

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

Today's main economic indicators are as follows.

• GMT 12:30 U.S. July Housing starts
• GMT 12:30 U.S. July Building permits
• GMT 14:00 U.S. August Michigan Consumer Sentiment, preliminary