USD/JPY has posted considerable gains in the Monday session, continuing the upward trend seen on Friday. In North American trade, the pair is trading at 109.95, up 0.41% on the day. It’s a quiet day on the release front, with no major indicators. On Tuesday, the key event is ISM Non-manufacturing PMI.
Japanese manufacturing PMI slipped to 50.3 in January, down from 52.6 points a month earlier. This was the weakest score since August 2016 and points to stagnation in the manufacturing sector. The ongoing global trade war has taken a toll on Japanese exports, which is turn has dampened the manufacturing industry. The U.S-China trade spat has been the catalyst behind the global trade war, and investors are cautiously optimistic that negotiations between the sides will continue and that a threat by the U.S. to impose further sanctions on March 1 will be avoided.
In the U.S., the week ended with mixed employment numbers. The economy created 304 thousand jobs, crushing the estimate of 165 thousand. This was the second score above the 300-thousand mark for a second successive month. However, wage growth was a disappointment, dropping from 0.4% to 0.1%. This fell shy of the estimate of 0.3% and marked the weakest reading since April 2018.
