Yen Falls On U.S. Stimulus Expectations

The Japanese yen slipped against its major counterparts in the Asian session on Thursday, as the Democratic victory in runoff elections in Georgia underpinned sentiment.

Democratic candidates Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff defeated Republican challengers Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, respectively in the state of Georgia.

With the victory, the Democrats will have 50 seats in the Senate, the upper house of Congress. And a tie-breaking vote from Vice President-elect Harris would give them control of the Senate.

This gives President-elect Joe Biden a greater scope of pursuing fiscal stimulus being sworn in on January 20.

The yen dropped to 103.26 against the greenback and 117.44 versus the franc, off its early highs of 102.95 and 117.14, respectively. If the yen slides further, 106.5 and 120.5 are possibly seen as its next support levels against the greenback and the franc, respectively.

After rising to 126.88 against the euro and 81.18 against the loonie in previous deals, the yen edged down to 127.23 and 81.46, respectively. The yen is seen finding support around 129.00 versus the euro and 82.5 versus the loonie.

In contrast, the yen was trading at 80.33 against the aussie and 75.12 against the kiwi, up from its early low of 75.29 and near a 2-year low of 80.55, respectively. The yen is poised to test resistance around 77.00 against the aussie and 72.00 against the kiwi.

The yen reversed from an early low of 140.55 against the pound, with the pair trading at 140.26. The currency may test resistance around the 138.00 region.

Looking ahead, at 2.00 am ET, German factory orders for November are due.

At 2.30 am ET, the Federal Statistical Office is set to publish Swiss retail sales for November.

Eurozone retail sales for November and economic confidence index and consumer price inflation for December, as well as German and U.K. construction PMIs for December are set for release in the European session.

U.S. and Canadian trade data for November, Canada Ivey PMI for December, U.S. weekly jobless claims for the week ended January 2 and ISM non-manufacturing PMI for December will be released in the New York session.