• USD/JPY gathered bullish momentum and climbed above 149.00.
• Upbeat Retail Sales and Jobless Claims data from the US provide a boost to the USD.
• The US Dollar Index rises more than 0.5% on the day above 103.00.

USD/JPY gathered bullish momentum and broke out of its one-week-old range in the American session on Thursday. At the time of press, the pair was trading a few pips above 149.00, rising 1.1% on a daily basis.

US Dollar benefits from upbeat data

The renewed US Dollar (USD) strength triggered an upsurge in the second half of the day on Thursday. The data from the US showed that weekly Initial Jobless Claims declined to 227,000 from 234,000 and Retail Sales rose 1%, surpassing the market expectation for an increase of 0.3%. With these reading easing fears over an economic downturn in the US, the USD started to outperform its rivals. As of writing, the USD Index was up 0.55% on the day at 103.15.

Later in the session, investors will pay close attention to comments from Federal Reserve (Fed) officials. According to the CME FedWatch Tool, markets are currently pricing in a 23.5% probably of the Fed lowering the policy rate by 50 basis points (bps), down from nearly 50% at the beginning of the week.