USD/JPY stages a tepid recovery, manages to defends 113.00 handle

Despite of yesterday's sharp slide, the USD/JPY pair managed to defend 113.00 handle and staged a tepid recovery bounce on Friday.

Currently trading around 113.40 region, the pair meandered near weekly lows amid persistent worries over the US President Donald Trump's protectionist stance and uncertainty around his proposed pro-economic policies. 

Even the recent slew of stronger US economic data has failed to lift the US Treasury bond yields and assist the greenback to register any meaningful recovery. On Thursday, investors shrugged off yet another trio of upbeat US economic indicators, which pointed towards the underlying strength in the US economic activity, and the pair extended Wednesday's rejection move from 50-day SMA hurdle near the 115.00 psychological mark.

Meanwhile, Friday's rebound seemed lacking conviction amid prevalent risk-off sentiment, which tends to benefit the Japanese Yen's safe-haven appeal and might collaborate towards capping the pair's follow through recovery attempts.

With an empty economic docket on Friday, the pair remains at the mercy of broader market risk sentiment and the US Dollar price-action. 

Technical levels to watch

On a sustained break below 113.00 handle, the pair is likely to accelerate the slide towards 112.60-50 horizontal support before eventually breaking through 112.00 handle and aim towards retesting over 2-month lows support near 111.65-60 region. 

Meanwhile on the upside, any recovery attempt now seems to confront hurdle near 113.50-55 region ahead of a resistance near 113.70-75 area. Momentum above 113.75 barrier could get extended towards 114.25 horizontal resistance above which the pair is likely to make a fresh attempt towards clearing 50-day SMA strong resistance near 115.00 psychological mark.