USD/JPY Price Analysis: Bulls struggle to defend 200-DMA, risks breaking below 108.00 mark

• USD/JPY remains under some heavy selling pressure for the second straight session.
• The near-term technical set-up might have already shifted in favour of bearish traders.

The USD/JPY pair remained under some heavy selling pressure for the second straight session on Friday and has now slipped below the very important 200-day SMA, closer to 108.00 mark.

Given the overnight sustained break through a 2-1/2-week-old ascending trend-channel, the near-term technical set-up already seems to have shifted in favour of bearish traders.

Meanwhile, oscillators on the daily chart have been losing positive momentum and have already drifted into the bearish territory on the 4-hourly chart, reinforcing the bearish bias.

Hence, some follow-through selling now seems to set the stage for an extension of this week’s retracement slide from one-month tops towards testing the 107.65 support.

On the flip side, any attempted recovery might now confront stiff resistance and remain capped near the 109.00 level, which should act as a key pivotal point for short-term traders. 

USD/JPY 4-hourly chart

Technical levels to watch