USD/JPY off lows, still deep in the red below mid-111.00s

   •  Libyan geopolitical tensions underpin JPY's safe-haven demand and prompt some selling.
   •  Friday's sluggish US wage growth data-led slide in the US bond yields weigh on the USD.

The USD/JPY pair failed to capitalize on last week's goodish up-move to three-week tops and witnessed some aggressive long-unwinding trade at the start of a new trading week. 

With investors awaiting fresh updates over the progress in the US-China trade talks, highlighted geopolitical tensions in Libya underpinned the Japanese Yen's relative safe-haven status and turned out to be one of the key factors weighing on the major.

The Japanese Yen further benefitted from upbeat domestic data, showing that current account surplus widened more than expected to 1.96 Trillion in February, which coupled with a subdued US Dollar demand exerted some additional downward pressure on the major.

Friday's sluggish wage growth data from the US reaffirmed prospects that the Fed is unlikely to raise interest rates further in 2019 and was evident from declining US Treasury bond yields, which largely offset upbeat headline NFP print and kept the USD bulls on the defensive.

The bearish pressure, however, abated, at least for the time being, following the release of Bank of Japan's (BoJ) latest monthly Sakura (economic assessment) report, wherein the central bank downgraded the economic assessment for three regions - Tohoku, Hokuriku, and Kyushu-Okinawa.

It would now be interesting to see if the pair is able to attract any fresh buying at lower levels or the current pull-back marks the end of the recent positive momentum of 200+ pips witnessed over the past two weeks amid absent relevant market moving economic releases from the US.

Technical levels to watch