USD/JPY plummets below 108.00 handle, lowest since mid-Nov. 2016

The USD/JPY pair remained heavily offered on Friday and has now broken below the 108.00 handle for the first time since mid-November 2016.

With investors looking past a slight disappointment from today's slightly weaker final GDP growth figures from Japan, broad based US Dollar sell-off continued weighing on the major through Asian session. 

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This coupled with deteriorating investors' risk appetite was seen driving flows towards traditional safe-haven assets, including Treasuries and the Japanese Yen. Hence, a sharp slide in the US Treasury bond yields did little to provide any immediate respite for the greenback and stall the pair's fall to near 10-month lows. 

Meanwhile, the market seems to have largely ignored comments by the BoJ Deputy Governor Hiroshi Nakaso, noting that a little more time would be needed to reach the price target of 2%, with the prevalent higher bearish sentiment surrounding the greenback acting as an exclusive driver of the pair's movement on the last trading day of the week. 

Technical outlook

Valeria Bednarik, Chief Analyst at FXStreet writes, "the risk remains towards the downside and there are no signs of a bottom, as in the 4 hours chart, the price is further below bearish 100 and 200 SMAs, whilst the Momentum indicator has turned flat within negative territory, and the RSI indicator barely bounced from oversold readings. Another round of selling that sends the pair below 108.10 should lead to a new leg lower, towards the 107.30/70 region."