USD/JPY retreats from two-week tops, farther below 109.00 handle

   •  Weaker risk sentiment underpins JPY’s safe-haven demand and exerts pressure.
   •  A modest USD uptick offset by weaker US bond yields and fails to support.

The USD/JPY pair extended its intraday decline farther below the 109.00 handle and eroded a part of the previous session's up-move to two-week tops. 

The pair failed to capitalize on the overnight bullish breakthrough the 109.00 handle, over one-week-old trading range hurdle and snapped two consecutive days of winning streak.

Bullish traders seemed unimpressed by a modest US Dollar uptick, rather took cues from reviving safe-haven demand amid a weaker tone surrounding global equities.

The risk-off mood was evident from some renewed weakness in the US Treasury bond yields and was seen boosting the Japanese Yen's relative safe-haven status. 

Moving ahead, today's second-tier US economic releases - initial weekly jobless claims and Philly Fed Manufacturing Index, will now be looked upon for some fresh impetus.

Technical levels to watch

Any subsequent slide is likely to find some support near the 108.55-50 region, below which the pair is likely to head towards challenging the 108.00 round figure mark. On the flip side, the 109.10-20 region now seems to have emerged as an immediate resistance, which if cleared might trigger a short-covering bounce and assist the pair towards reclaiming the key 110.00 psychological mark.