The apparent jawboning by Japanese officials and the supposed rate check by the BOJ in preparation for intervention seems to be doing the trick for now. But is this all just a set up for the bulls to load up on a cheaper price in USD/JPY? One can argue so. But for now, the more bullish near-term bias is being checked back as price falls to 143.00 on the day and slips past its 100-hour moving average at 143.20 currently.
The high earlier today hit 144.95 and did not clip the 145.00 mark again, where barrier options have been reported since last week. Adding to that, reports are noting that the BOJ rate check earlier today was when price hit 144.90 - so that seems to be where Japanese officials are trying to draw a hard line in the currency (at least for now).
In the bigger picture, the pair is still caught in more bullish territory between 140.00 and 145.00 at the moment with price action holding above the key hourly moving averages indicating that we are closer to testing the upper limits of that range. The Fed and BOJ policy divergence remains a key driver, or possibly the most important driver, and that is unlikely to change any time soon. As such, the risk here is how serious are the threats from Japanese officials going to be. Here is an overview of the pair:
