Technical Analysis: USD/JPY awaits a move beyond the 152.00 mark before the next leg of an appreciating move

From a technical perspective, the range-bound price action witnessed over the past three weeks or so might still be categorized as a bullish consolidation phase against the backdrop of the recent rally from the March swing low. Moreover, oscillators on the daily chart are holding in the positive territory and are still away from being in the overbought zone, suggesting that the path of least resistance for the USD/JPY pair is to the upside. That said, it will still be prudent to wait for a sustained move and acceptance above the 152.00 mark before positioning for any further gains. 

In the meantime, any corrective pullback is more likely to find some support and be bought into near the 151.30 horizontal zone. This should help limit the downside for the USD/JPY pair near the 151.00 mark. A convincing break below the latter, however, might prompt some technical selling and expose Friday's swing low, around the 150.30 region. This is followed by the 150.00 psychological mark, which if broken decisively will shift the near-term bias in favor of bearish traders. Spot prices might then accelerate the fall to the 149.35-149.30 region en route to the 149.00 mark