USD/JPY tests down to the 131.50s as US Dollar stays soft

• USD/JPY bears stay in charge as the US Dollar hovers near 2-month lows. 
• Attention will now turn to Friday's Nonfarm Payrolls jobs data.

USD/JPY is lower in Tokyo as the US Dollar remains soft. The pair is trading near 131.50 and has fallen from a high of 131.73 to a low of 131.30 so far. 

The US Dollar is pressured still near the two-month lows following a series of troublesome data from the United States has cooled bets of a more hawkish Federal Reserve that now appears to be near the end of its monetary tightening cycle. Labor market conditions could finally be easing as per the data that was released overnight with the Job openings, a measure of labor demand, down some 632,000 to 9.9 million on the last day of February.

US factory orders also declined for a second straight month, down 0.7% in February after falling 2.1% in January from the 1.7% jump in December. This data comes on the heels of the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) that yesterday reported that its Manufacturing PMI fell to 46.3 last month. This was the worst since May 2020, from 47.7 in February. 

Traders' attention will now turn to Friday's Nonfarm Payrolls jobs report, although many markets will be closed for the Easter holiday. ´´US payrolls likely stayed firm at a still above-trend pace in March, though slowing from stronger prints in Jan-Feb,´´ the analysts at TD Securities explained. ´´We also look for the Unemployment Rate to stay unchanged at 3.6%, and wage growth to print a firm 0.3% MoM.´´