USD/JPY refreshes daily high on stronger USD ahead of critical US data

• USD/JPY continues to rise on Friday for the third second day.
• US Dollar Index remains steady above 92.20 on mixed economic data, Fed’s hawkish comments.
• The yen losses attractiveness as a record case of delta variant reported in Japan.

USD/JPY extends gains in the initial Asian trading session on Friday. The upbeat movement in the US dollar sponsors the performance of the pair.

At the time of writing, USD/JPY is trading at 109.78, up 0.04 % for the day.

The US Dollar Index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against its six major rivals, trades near 92.30 with 0.04% gains. 
The 
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits declined to 385k in July, broadly in line with market estimates of 384K whereas the US posted the largest trade deficit on record in June at $75.7 billion compared to $73.9 billion.

On the other hand, the Japanese yen lost ground after the head of the Japan Medical Association asked for a nationwide state of emergency.

Meanwhile, the au Jibun Bank Japan Services PMI came at 47.4 in July compared with market estimates of 46.4 in June. The pessimistic reading weighed upon the yen.

As for now, investors wait for US Nonfarm payrolls to gauge the market sentiment.

USD/JPY additional levels