Back Sub 150.00, Weekly Investment Flows Out Today

USD/JPY fell back to 149.57 in NY trade, as US retail sales printed weaker than expected. We rebounded though back to 150.25 and track near 149.90 in early Friday dealings. Better US manufacturing sentiment data helped stabilize USD sentiment, although we still finished lower for the USD indices (BBDXY -0.35%).

• USD/JPY is snot too far away from pre US CPI levels from earlier in the week, (close to 149.30), however, the 20 and 50-day EMAs sit further south at 148.27 and 147.15 respectively.
• On the topside, recent highs rest at 150.89.
• Broadly, USD/JPY is following US-JP yield differential trends, which have moved off post CPI highs. The 10yr spread is back around +350bps, versus recent highs around the +358bps level.
• The local data calendar has weekly investment flow data and then the Dec tertiary industry index.
• Note the following in the option expiry space for NY cut later: Y148.90-00($1.8bln), Y150.00($1.7bln), Y150.15-25($947mln), Y150.40-50($1.1bln), Y151.95-00($1.0bln).