Yesterday the USDJPY rose gently during the Tokyo and London sessions, but volatility suddenly increased at around GMT 14:00, and the yen shot up from 145.74 to 146.90.

However, after creating a long upper wick the price plunged, returning to the original downward trend. Ultimately it hit a low of 144.45 at around GMT 18:00.

The cause of these sudden movements was a revision to annual data by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Although the market surged after the announcement, it then shifted to dollar selling in response to a significant downward revision of 818,000.

Today the USDJPY followed a weak upward trend in the morning session, hitting a high of 145.64 before GMT 02:00.

Looking at the 1-hour chart of the USDJPY (as of GMT 05:10 on August 22), the middle line of the Bollinger Band is trending down, showing that the market is if anything in bearish mode.

(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
• GMT 13:45 U.S. August Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI, preliminary)
• GMT 13:45 U.S. August Services Purchasing Managers Index (PMI, preliminary)
• GMT 13:45 U.S. August Composite Purchasing Managers Index (PMI, preliminary)
• GMT 14:00 U.S. July Existing home sales