USD/JPY flirting with daily lows, around 107.00 mark post-US weekly jobless claims

• USD/JPY lacked any firm directional bias and held near two-week lows.
• Improving risk sentiment, a modest USD uptick extended some support.
• The US jobless claims jumped to 6.648 million but did little to influence.

The USD/JPY pair edged lower during the early North-American session and moved to the lower end of its daily trading range post-US macro data.

A combination of diverging forces failed to provide any meaningful impetus and led to a subdued/range-bound price action through the major part of Thursday trading action.

A modest recovery in the global risk sentiment undermined the Japanese yen's perceived safe-haven demand and helped the pair to hold its neck above the 107.00 round-figure mark.

This coupled with a modest pickup in the US dollar demand extended some additional support, albeit a steep decline in the US Treasury bond yields capped any meaningful gains.

Meanwhile, the greenback lost some traction, albeit lacked any strong follow-through after the US initial weekly jobless claims surged to 6648K as against a rise to 3500K estimates.

Given that a big jump in the number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits was largely priced in amid the coronavirus crisis, the data failed to provide any meaningful impetus.

Hence, it will be prudent to wait for some strong follow-through selling, possibly a sustained weakness below the 107.00 mark, before positioning for any further depreciating move.

Technical levels to watch