USD/JPY off lows, still mildly weaker around 113.60 region

   •  Extends Friday’s post-US GDP profit-taking slide. 
   •  Weaker Japanese retail sales partly offset falling US bond yields. 
   •  Focus shifts to this week’s BoJ, FOMC & NFP. 

The USD/JPY pair extended Friday's sharp pull-back from fresh 3-month tops and traded with a mild negative bias at the start of a new trading week. 

Having failed to benefit from upbeat US Q3 GDP figures, the pair was being further weighed down by a sharp retracement in the US Treasury bond yields on Monday. Speculations that the US President Donald Trump is leaning towards appointing Jerome Powell as the next Fed Chair kept the US Dollar bulls on the back-foot. 

Adding to this, the prevalent cautious environment around equity markets was further seen lending support to the Japanese Yen's safe-haven appeal and prompted additional profit taking slide through the early Asian on Monday. 

However, today's disappointing Japanese retail sales data, coming-in to show a growth of 2.2% for September as compared to 2.5% expected, helped limit deeper losses, at least for the time being.

Moreover, investors also seemed reluctant to place aggressive bets ahead of this week's key event risks - BoJ on Tuesday, FOMC on Wednesday and the release of keenly watched NFP data on Friday. 

   •  BOJ likely to remain on-hold tomorrow – BBG Survey

In the meantime, today's US economic data - core PCE price index, personal income/spending data, might help traders to grab some short-term trading opportunities. 

Technical levels to watch

A follow-through retracement below 113.50 level could extend the corrective slide towards 113.25 support en-route the 113.00 handle and 112.85 horizontal zone.

On the flip side, momentum above 113.85 level is likely to confront hurdle near the 114.00 handle, above which the pair is likely to make a fresh attempt towards clearing July swing highs resistance near mid-114.00s.