FxWirePro: AUD/JPY Daily Outlook

Chart - Courtesy Trading View 

AUD/JPY was trading 0.04% lower on the day at 92.66 at around 11:55 GMT, 200-DMA caps upside.

The Australian dollar under pressure despite hawkish RBA minutes and upbeat February PMI data.

Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) Feb. 7 policy meeting minutes out on Tuesday showed the Board had also considered raising interest rates by 50 basis points, as it struggled to bring down inflation from overheated levels.

The RBA had eventually settled on a 25 basis point (bps) hike, raising rates to 3.35 bps. The central bank had hiked rates by a cumulative 300 basis points in 2022 .

The minutes showed that members saw uncertainty around the near-term economic outlook and that regular meetings gave the bank enough scope to keep raising rates.

Focus now on Australia Wage Price Index data due on Wednesday to gauge how much higher rates would have to go. Wage growth seen picking up to a fresh eight-year high of 3.5% in Q4 last year.

On the other side, preliminary readings of Japan’s Jibun Bank Manufacturing PMI fell to the lowest levels since September 2020, to 47.4 versus 48.9 expected and prior. 

Japan Services PMI, however, was up at 53.6 compared to 51.5 market forecasts and 51.1 previous readouts.

BoJ’s Kuroda said that wage growth will likely accelerate, raising fears of a higher BoJ rate when Kuroda retires in April.

200-DMA is major resistance at 93.05. 5-DMA has turned and is now biased south. Momentum is bullish and volatility remains high. Break below 5-DMA will see dip till 110-EMA at 91.95.