USD/JPY flirts with 115.00 amid fresh hopes of a pause in Ukraine-Russia war

• USD/JPY snaps two-day downtrend, recently picking up bids to print mild intraday gains.
• Interfax hints at a pause in Russian fires, opening of humanitarian corridors in several Ukrainian cities.
• US Treasury yields pare early Asian session losses, stock futures, Asian equities remain on the back foot.
• US eyes unilateral move to ban oil imports from Russia.

USD/JPY prints mild gains around 115.00 heading into Monday’s European session. In doing so, the yen pair prints daily gain for the first time in three days by the press time.

Although the quote’s risk-barometer status contradicts the latest gains, headlines from Russian media Interfax seem to have offered a pause to the market’s risk-aversion.

The news states, “Russian military to hold fire, open humanitarian corridors in several Ukrainian cities at 10:00 MSK (07:00 GMT) on Monday. The halt in the evacuation and invasion of Kyiv has recently roiled the market’s appetite.

The same pushed the Western leaders to discuss banning oil imports from Russia wherein the US sounds aggressive as Bloomberg hints at the unilateral move without allies.

The risk-off mood underpins the US dollar’s safe-haven demand and drowns Japan’s Nikkei 225 to a 16-month low. That said, the US 10-year Treasury yields recover from intraday low to 1.70% at the latest.

Other than the sour sentiment, increasing odds of the faster Fed-rate-hike and recently firmer US jobs report for February also favor USD/JPY bulls.

Moving on, headlines concerning Russia-Ukraine tussles will be the key for USD/JPY prices while monthly US inflation will also be important for near-term trade direction.

Technical analysis

USD/JPY remains sidelined between the 100-DMA level surrounding 114.45 and a three-week-old resistance line, close to 115.65 at the latest.