Key Highlights

• The US Dollar remains in a major bull trend above 112.80 against the Japanese Yen.
• There are a few major bullish trend lines with supports as 113.10, 112.80 and 112.20 forming on the 4 hours chart of USD/JPY.
• Recently in the US, the ADP Employment Change for June 2017 posted 158K, less than the forecast of 185K.
• Today in the US, the nonfarm payrolls for June 2017 will be released, which is expected to post an increase of 179K.

USDJPY Technical Analysis

The US Dollar started a major uptrend from the 109.00 low against the Japanese Yen. The USD/JPY pair is trading comfortably above 112.50 and looks set for more gains.

On the downside, there are a few major bullish trend lines with supports as 113.10, 112.80 and 112.20 forming on the 4 hours chart.

These trend lines might play a crucial role for more gains above 113.50 in the near term. As long as the pair is above the 112.00 handle, it remains in an uptrend.

On the upside, there are high chances of USD/JPY testing the 114.00 or 115.00 in the near term. It depends on today’s release of June’s 2017 NFP figure as well. Any better than expected increase in the NFP above 185K could trigger further upsides in the US Dollar and USD/JPY.

US ADP Employment Change

Recently, the US saw the release of the Employment Change for June 2017 by the Automatic Data Processing, Inc. The market was positioned for an increase of 185K, compared with the last 253K.

The actual result was on the lower side, as the change was 158K. Commenting on June’s 2017 report, Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, stated:

The job market continues to power forward. Abstracting from the monthly ups and downs, job growth remains a stalwart between 150,000 and 200,000. At this pace, which is double the rate of labor force growth, the tight labor market will continue getting tighter.

The USD/JPY pair was down 20 30 pips after the release, and was seen testing the 113.00 handle, but later bounced back. Overall, the 112.80 support holds the key in the short term.

Economic Releases to Watch Today

• US nonfarm payrolls June 2017 – Forecast 179K, versus 138K previous.
• US Unemployment Rate April 2017 – Forecast 4.3%, versus 4.3% previous.
• US Average Hourly Earnings (MoM) June 2017 – Forecast 0.3%, versus 0.2% previous.
• Canada’s employment Change payrolls June 2017 – Forecast 10K, versus 54.5K previous.
• Canada’s Unemployment Rate June 2017 – Forecast 6.6%, versus 6.6% previous.
• UK Industrial Production for May 2017 (MoM) – Forecast +0.4%, versus +0.2% previous.
• UK Manufacturing Production for May 2017 (MoM) – Forecast +0.5%, versus +0.2% previous.
• UK Trade Balance non EU for May 2017 – Forecast £ 2.50B, versus £ 2.07B previous.
• UK Goods Trade Balance for May 2017 – Forecast £ 10.80B, versus £ 10.38B previous.
• Germany’s Industrial Production for May 2017 (MoM) – Forecast +0.3%, versus +0.8% previous.