• USD/JPY recovers after last week’s losses on possible intervention and weak US jobs data. 
• Janet Yellen’s mild criticism of intervention may have helped the pair higher. 
• Japanese currency officials continue to threaten intervention, filling the road higher with “potholes”. 

USD/JPY trades at 154.35 on Tuesday, up almost three tenths of a percentage point, mainly as a result of the US Dollar (USD) ending its post-FOMC losing streak and recovering on the back of comments from Federal Reserve (Fed) officials suggesting they are not in a hurry to cut interest rates. 

The maintenance of higher interest rates for longer and further delaying of possible cuts is beneficial for the USD as it attracts more foreign capital inflows. This, and the fact that – in the case of USD/JPY – interest rates in the US are so much higher than in Japan, further aids USD and disproportionately disadvantages JPY.