USD/JPY boosted by US data almost reaches first rebound objective

Yesterday afternoon, the combination of better than forecast US retail sales data (rose by 1% compared to a forecast of 0.3%) and a lower weekly jobless claims number helped to push the dollar immediately higher. The USD/JPY surged through 148 and then above 149. It has been trading around 147.30 ahead of the data. The USD/JPY later peaked at 149.39 ahead of the US close, at 149.29. That session high just was just short of a level that has been mentioned here a few times since the beginning of last week and it is at 149.44. That was a noted first technical objective (38.2%) for a rebound from the 161.95-141.70 fall. So, as you can see it almost nailed it yesterday. Earlier in the Asian session today it tried again to reach that level, but this time it peaked at 149.35 and has since dropped back to an Asian session low at 148.74. It is above that low just now, currently trading at 148.92