Failure to recover 158.00 exposed the cross under downward pressure

• The British pound is up 0.18% against the Japanese yen.
• The failure of GBP / JPY to rally above 158.22 exposes the pair to bearish pressure unless GBP bulls hold the cross above 156.00.

As the end of the first trading week of 2022 nears, the British pound trimmed some of Thursday’s losses and recovered to the 157.00 level. At the time of writing this article, the GBP/JPY it is trading at 157.12 during the American session.

On Friday, the GBP / JPY pair was subdued amid the lack of economic data from the UK and Japan on the economic docket. During the overnight session for American traders, the GBP / JPY cross remained within the 156.70-157.10 range, trendless and hovering around the 50 hourly simple moving average (SMA).

GBP / JPY Price Forecast: Technical Outlook

GBP / JPY is still trending up, although it failed to break above the 158.00 level, once it broke in October 2021, when GBP / JPY hit the yearly high at 158.22. However, Friday’s recovery leaves some doubts on the table. The high of the cycle reached on January 5 at 157.76, is lower than the one mentioned above, so any sharp turn in the market mood would put downward pressure on the GBP / JPY.

To the upside, the first resistance level for GBP / JPY is the January 5 daily high at 157.76. A break of the latter would expose the October 20, 2021 cycle high at 158.22, followed by 160.00 and then the May 2016 monthly highs at around 163-86.

On the other hand, the first support of the cross is 157.00. A clear breakout of the figure opens the door for a challenge from the daily low on January 6 at 156.09, followed by the daily low on January 3 at 154.89, and then on December 28, 2021, the pivot low at 154.00.

Additional technical levels