Ella 
In early European trading on Friday, USD/JPY rose to around 146.00, regaining its recent decline. The yen came under downward pressure amid mixed inflation data from Japan.
In Tokyo, Japan, the annual rate of CPI in August fell to 2.9%, which was expected to be 3.0%, and the previous value was 3.2%. At the same time, the core inflation rate excluding energy remained at 4%, and the core inflation rate excluding fresh food fell to 2.8% year-on-year, compared with the expected 2.9% and the previous value of 3%.
On the other hand, as of the week of August 18, the number of initial jobless claims in the United States fell to 230,000, which was expected to be 240,000, as long as before. However, durable goods orders in the United States fell by 5.2% in July, and the market expected an increase of 4%, from the previous value of 4.4 yuan.
The U.S. dollar index , which measures the greenback’s value against six major currencies, hovered around 104.20 ahead of a speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. USD/JPY traders are also keeping a close eye on Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda’s speech at Sunday’s Jackson Hole symposium for insights from the financial and economic sector to help trade USD/JPY strategies.
In addition, strong U.S. employment data, rising U.S. bond yields and mixed sentiment around the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hike in September pushed USD/JPY higher. In addition, Sino-US tensions and China’s economic woes triggered the pair’s gains.
