Yesterday the USDJPY briefly touched the 154.5-yen range just after the open, but yen strength dominated the session. The January nonfarm payrolls release at GMT 13:30 came in strong, pushing the pair up to 154.65, but a worse-than-expected January unemployment rate triggered dollar selling. The pair hit a low of 152.55 shortly after GMT 15:00 and trading for the day closed at 153.23 yen.

Today the USDJPY reached a high of 153.44 at around GMT 00:00 before falling to 152.26 yen at around GMT 03:30. As of GMT 04:00, the pair is hovering near 152.5 yen.

Looking at the 1-hour chart of the USDJPY (as of GMT 04:20 on February 12), the pattern of brief pullback rallies followed by fresh lows continues. The pair is approaching the January 27 low of 152.09, and the market is now in a phase where traders will be watching closely to see whether it breaks below that level or bounces back

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

The main economic indicators for today are as follows:

• GMT 13:30 U.S. Initial jobless claims for the previous week
• GMT 13:30 U.S. Continuing jobless claims for the previous week
• GMT 15:00 U.S. January Existing home sales