USD/JPY climbs higher toward 108.50 on upbeat market mood

• Latest US-China trade headlines improve the sentiment on Monday. 
• 10-year US Treasury bond yield is adding more than 2%.
• US Dollar Index staged a modest recovery following last week's drop.

The USD/JPY pair lost 50 pips last week and started to retrace its drop on Monday. As of writing, the pair was trading at fresh session highs at 108.42, adding 0.25% on a daily basis.

Risk on flows return on Monday

United States (US) Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Monday said that the US was engaged in a "long-overdue reassessment" of the trade relationship with China and added that they had come very far along with phase one of the trade deal. Meanwhile, several news outlets reported that Ross met with Chinese Premier Li on the sideline of the ASEAN Summit.

Reflecting the upbeat market mood, the 10-year US Treasury bond yield is up more than 2% on Monday and the S&P 500 Futures is adding 0.5% to suggest that Wall Street's main indexes are likely to start the week on a positive note.

On the other hand, despite the upbeat labour market figures from the United States on Friday, the US Dollar Index closed the previous week 0.7% lower but seems to be staging a technical rebound on Monday. At the moment, the index is up 0.2% on the day at 97.32, allowing the bullish momentum to remain intact.

The ISM-NY Business Conditions Index and Factory Orders data will be featured in the US economic docket. Nevertheless, the risk perception is likely to remain as the primary driver of the pair's action.

Technical levels to watch for