USD/JPY holds steady at Y108.66. Tokyo...>

DOLLAR-YEN: USD/JPY holds steady at Y108.66. Tokyo CPI and the latest round of

10-25+ Year Rinban ops are today's highlights.

- The pair eased off slightly during the first half of the day on Thursday,

before rallying in reaction to a solid round of U.S. data. Particularly

reassuring were durable good orders, which topped projections of +0.7% M/M,

printing at +2.0%.

- Bulls look for a break above the cloud base at Y108.79, which would shift

focus to the Jul 10 high of Y108.99. A retreat below the 50-DMA at Y108.42 would

encourage bears to set their sights on the trendline support at Y108.25.

- MNI understands that BoJ members are still debating whether to extend their

forward guidance or to take other action such as boosting purchases of

exchange-traded funds at their next policy meeting. See MNI Main Wire at 13:23

BST 07/25 for the full story.

- Next week, Japanese focus turns to domestic retail sales due Monday,

industrial output & unemployment due Tuesday and, crucially, the BoJ MonPol

decision, which is expected on Tuesday. BoJ's Amamiya speaks on Thursday.