USD/JPY keeps the red, just below mid-113.00s ahead of US retail sales

   •  A goodish pickup in the USD demand helped stall this week’s corrective slide.
   •  Bearish traders seemed to take cues from the prevalent cautious mood.
   •  Sliding US bond yields also do little to lend any support ahead of US macro data.

The USD/JPY pair held on to its weaker tone through the mid-European session, albeit has managed to hold around 15-pips above daily lows touched earlier today.

The pair extended this week's retracement slide from over one-month tops, levels beyond the 114.00 handle, but once again, for the second straight session, managed to find some support near the 113.30 region amid a goodish pickup in the US Dollar demand.  

The greenback stalled its recent corrective slide from roughly 1-1/2 year tops and regained positive traction, primarily on the back of a selloff in the British Pound, which was eventually seen as one of the key factors lending some support to the major.

However, the prevalent cautious mood around equity markets underpinned the Japanese Yen's safe-haven status, which coupled with a weaker tone around the US Treasury bond yields kept a lid on any meaningful up-move.

Investors also seemed reluctant to place any aggressive bets and preferred to wait on the sideline ahead of today's important release of the US monthly retail sales data, due for release in a short while from now. 

Apart from this, the US economic docket also features the release of initial weekly jobless claims and regional manufacturing indices, which might be looked to grab some short-term trading opportunities during the early North-American session.

Technical levels to watch

Immediate resistance is now pegged near the 113.55-60 region, above which the pair is likely to surpass the 113.80 horizontal hurdle and aim towards reclaiming the 114.00 round figure mark. On the flip side, any meaningful downfall is likely to find some support near the 113.10-113.00 region, which if broken might prompt some additional long-unwinding trade and accelerate the slide further towards the 112.60-50 support zone.