Ella 
The Japanese yen (JPY) rose to its highest level since early February against the US dollar on Friday on bets that the Bank of Japan (BoJ) is about to shift its policy stance. Additionally, investors appear to believe that another big wage hike in Japan will fuel demand-driven inflationary pressures and allow the Bank of Japan to end its negative interest rate policy as early as its March 18-19 meeting. This, coupled with the upward revision of Japan’s fourth-quarter GDP, boosted the yen and kept USD/JPY depressed in Asia on Monday.
Meanwhile, the U.S. jobs report for February once again confirmed expectations that the Federal Reserve (Fed) will begin cutting interest rates in June and continued to weigh on the dollar. This is another factor in USD/JPY’s sixth straight day of gains and supports the prospect of further USD/JPY depreciation. Currently, market focus has turned to U.S. consumer inflation data due to be released on Tuesday. However, the fundamental backdrop suggests that USD/JPY has minimal downside resistance.
