Yestarday The GBP/JPY cross surrendered its intraday gains to the multi-year peak and dropped to a fresh daily low, back closer to the 160.00 mark during the early part of the European session.

The cross built on the previous day's blowout rally and gained some follow-through traction through the first half of the trading on Wednesday. This marked the fourth successive day of a positive move - also the eight in the previous nine - and was sponsored by the heavily offered tone surrounding the Japanese yen.

Despite worries about the economic impact of the war in Ukraine, an extended sell-off in the bond markets continued driving flows toward big tech and other beaten-down stocks. This, in turn, was seen as a key factor that weighed on safe-haven JPY and pushed the GBP/JPY cross to its highest level since May 2016.

Apart from this, a modest pullback in the equity markets extended some support to the JPY and further contributed to the GBP/JPY pair's sharp intraday slide of nearly 100 pips from the daily peak. Traders now look forward to BoE Governor Andrew Bailey's remarks at the BIS innovation summit for some short-term opportunities.

In doing so, the yen cross justifies the previous day’s bearish spinning top candlestick, as well as overbought RSI, to extend pullback from a six-year high.

That said, the quote’s latest weakness directs bears towards the previous resistance line from October 2021, around 157.30. However, the last year’s high of 158.21 may act as an intermediate halt.

Should the GBP/JPY prices drop below 157.30, the sellers may not hesitate to revisit the early March’s swing high near 155.25.

Meanwhile, the pair’s further upside momentum will initially be challenged by an ascending resistance line from May 2021, around 160.55 by the press time.

Following that, the latest high near 161.10 and May 2016 top surrounding 163.90 will be on GBP/JPY bull’s radar.

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