Ueda’s change in tone today made a difference, as USD/JPY fell nearly 100 pips at his press conference. The pair was hugging the 148.00 level earlier but is now trading near 147.00 as Ueda appears to be initiating a political move next March or April.
USD/JPY hourly chart
As you can see from the chart above, the pair is now moving towards testing the 200-hour moving average (blue line) at 146.88 currently. Meanwhile, sellers are also looking to sustain a break below the 100-day moving average at 147.50 during the day. That would be a major technical blow to the pair’s recent bullish momentum to start the year.
As the USD/JPY pair declines, it is also affecting the performance of the dollar in general at the moment. EUR/USD rose 0.3% to 1.0913 while USD/CHF fell 0.5% to 0.8650 during the day. Meanwhile, counterparts are continuing their previous gains with AUD/USD up 0.6% to 0.6610 and NZD/USD up 0.6% to 0.6114 currently.