describing what a strong dollar means
  • USD/JPY falls after the early rise.
  • Vaccine optimism weighs on JPY, aiding the pair.
  • Traders eye US data for further clues.

The USD/JPY trades near intraday lows around 104.35 in a day of sustained dollar weakness. The pair went up to 104.55 during the early trade but failed to sustain the strength.

The sellers are successfully extending yesterday’s retracement from the one-week high helped by the broad-based selling in the greenback against its prominent competitors.

The below than expected growth in the US private-sector employees at 307k jobs against an expected 410k in November, according to the ADP report released on Wednesday, revived fears of economic stalling due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The optimism surrounding the vaccine development has pushed the safe-haven JPY on the back-foot, and it might lend some support to the USD/JPY. Yesterday, the UK approved the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech jointly and decided to start mass vaccination from early next week.

Hence, it will be better to wait for further confirmation before joining the bears to fade the recent bounce from 103.80. Traders await Initial Weekly Jobless Claims and ISM Services PMI from the US for USD/JPY action ahead.