Technical Analysis: USD/JPY seems vulnerable to slide further while below 100-day SMA, 148.00 mark

From a technical perspective, spot prices struggled to find acceptance above the 100-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) and the 148.00 round-figure mark on Tuesday. The subsequent decline, along with the formation of a bearish double-top pattern in the vicinity of the 152.00 mark, or the YTD peak touched in February, suggests that the recent bearish trend might still be far from being over. Moreover, oscillators on the daily chart are holding deep in the negative territory and suggest that the path of least resistance for the USD/JPY pair is to the downside.

Any further downfall, however, is likely to find some support near the 147.00 mark ahead of the 146.80 region, representing the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level of the December-February rally. Some follow-through selling will expose the very important 200-day SMA, currently pegged near the 146.25 region, which if broken decisively will be seen as a fresh trigger for bearish traders. The USD/JPY pair might then weaken further below the 146.00 round figure and accelerate the slide towards the 50% Fibo. level, around the 145.55-145.50 zone