USD/JPY drops below 114 on unabated greenback sell-off
The heavy selling pressure seen on the greenback in the NA session dragged the USD/JPY pair to a fresh session low at 113.72 in the NA session. As of writing, the pair is trading at 113.82, losing 23 pips, or 0.2% on the day.
After spending the majority of the day within a reaching distance of the 96 mark, the US Dollar Index sharply fell to 95.40 as the greenback started to lose strength against its major rivals on some dovish Fed comments and concerns over rising political tensions in the U.S. At the moment, the index is at 95.44, down 0.4% on the day.
On Sunday, the New York Times reported that Donald Trump Jr, President Donald Trump's eldest son, agreed to meet with a Russian lawyer before the election after being promised information about Hillary Clinton that could help the Trump campaign win the race. Although Trump Jr initially denied the meeting, he released an e-mail chain on Tuesday that confirmed the Times' report. The e-mail exchange, which Trump Jr posted on his Twitter account, apparently showed that a Russian prosecutor was offering sensitive and highly classified information on Clinton as part of Russian government support.
- US Senate Intelligence Committee requesting documents from Trump Jr. - Reuters
On the other hand, ahead of Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen's semi-annual testimony to lawmakers, Lael Brainard, member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, adopted a relatively dovish tone by saying that once the balance sheet reduction is under way, they need to assess the impact on the inflation growth to decide on further rate hikes.
- Thoughts on the US policy mix - BBH
Technical outlook
Valeria Bednarik, Chief Analyst at FXStreet, writes, "technically, the pair stands within a daily ascendant channel, but nearing the base of the figure after the latest slump, at 113.60 for the upcoming session, while in the 4 hours chart, technical indicators have turned sharply lower, now entering negative territory and supporting some additional declines, moreover on a break below the mentioned support."
According to the analyst, 113.60 and 113.10 could be seen as technical supports while resistances align at 114.40, 114.75 and 115.10.
- USDJPY to end this year at 110 - Scotiabank