USD/JPY: Bulls holding tight to the 108 handle as risk sentiment remains solid

• USD/JPY has been bid in the Tokyo open, with bulls stepping in following a slide from the 108.50s which were taken on with a recovery in the greenback.
• USD/JPY is currently trading at 108.32, up from the lows of 108.29 as traders get set for the Aussie retail sales data. 

USD/JPY has been in a chop, much like the rest of the currency markets as we head into a close for the week. One of the major stories was the Swiss franc and SNB yesterday, although the market has swallowed that and instead says with a risk-on profile as investors remain optimistic over the Sino/US trade negotiations. 

At the same time, the cautionary track that that Fed has now taken leaves a comfortable foundation for global equities to continue to recover, with yet another gain on Wall Street overnight, setting the stage for a positive close for the week.  

On the data front, "US jobless claims struck a four-week low despite some early indications that filings by federal workers are on the rise (on the back of the partial government shutdown). Overall, the US labour market remains very tight with plenty of labour demand out there to absorb some of the fallout should the government shutdown persist for too long," as explained by analysts at ANZ Bank. 

USD/JPY levels

Valeria Bednarik, Chief Analyst, at FXStreet explained that the upside potential seems quite limited, as the pair is also developing far below its moving averages, which maintain their downward slopes, while technical indicators recover but within negative levels:

"Furthermore, the 61.8% retracement of the mentioned slide, which comes around 109.05 has capped advances earlier this week.  The 38.2% retracement, on the other hand, comes at 107.55, with a break below skewing the risk to the downside heading into the weekly close."