The USDJPY recently achieved new intraday and multi-week highs, entering the swing zone that previously limited rallies in early May (145.92-146.25). The pair is just pips away from the 61.8 % retracement at 146.148, which often serves as a critical level for corrective movements.

Recent pullbacks have been met with buying near the prior day’s highs of 145.76. This pattern suggests a bullish market, using minor dips as buying opportunities. A decline below this support, and the 50 % midpoint of the May range at 145.375, could shift momentum. However, the current trend suggests a potential breach of 146.24, which may lead to further increases.

Key Levels For Usdjpy

Key levels for USDJPY are crucial for monitoring. Resistance is noted at 146.148, with the 61.8 % retrace and swing-zone top at 146.25. Support levels include the prior highs and short-term floor at 145.76, with additional support at 145.375 for the 50 % May range, and further support at 145.15, marking the 100-hour moving average.

We’ve pushed into levels not traded since early May. Price is reacting at an area where previous sellers showed interest, but the persistence seen during this move—especially the way bids have returned after every dip—says more than perhaps the resistance levels themselves.

The fact that buyers are stepping in above the 145.76 mark, day after day, reveals a market still tilted towards strength. No one’s waiting for deep retracements now. Instead, we’re watching smaller pauses get snapped up—often even before price gets to test the wider support below.

Market Dynamics And Momentum

That 61.8% retrace at 146.148 can often behave as a barrier, and once price holds consistently through it, the next movement tends to extend further than expected. But it isn’t always immediate. There can be days when price hangs just under these levels, almost as if it needs to invite more participants or wring out the hesitant few before continuing.

We’ve now tested close to 146.25 without seeing much selling pressure, which lacks the rejection that had previously appeared there. That changes the tone. These zones only harden when the market respects them. If we’re slicing through intraday without fatigue, we’re not likely to stay below for long.

If we stumble however, and that pre-146 cluster near 145.76 doesn’t find willing hands, the floor will fall to the 145.375 level. That’s not just a number—it’s the midpoint from a broader retracement, acting as a balance point for the past month’s behaviour. Breaching that puts us back in price territory that hasn’t supported higher bids. Not ideal.

Our focus, again, is short-term direction from how price reacts—up here—just under the recent highs. If upside momentum pauses into non-committal behaviour, that’s our nudge to scale back short-term bias. But while dips are still treated as opportunities, not threats, the top remains increasingly exposed.

Volume may dry into the weekend, but thinner trades can still punch through technical levels with little restraint, especially if we’re sitting just below a magnetic resistance like 146.25.

Watch how these levels behave in thinner liquidity—especially around the open of next week. If defensive trades form below 145.76, and then attract follow-through beyond 145.375, that’s when we begin to question the staying power of this leg.

If not—and momentum persists—then targets expand into higher retracement levels not yet reached since April, with only shallow pullbacks worth attention.

Stay light unless the move fails twice. Then defensive trades have a better chance to hold.

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