USD/JPY holds positive ground above 142.60 amidst the holiday season's thin trading

The USD/JPY pair gains ground during the early Asian session on Wednesday. The pair has reached 142.84 following the release of the Bank of Japan's (BoJ) Summary of Opinions and currently trades around 142.60. The market is likely to be quiet amid the light trading volume in the last week of 2023.

Early Wednesday, the BoJ released the Summary of Opinions from the December Monetary Policy meeting. The remarks from the meeting were not surprised by the market, and the Japanese central bank is aware that conditions may emerge for withdrawing YCC and ultimately raising short-term interest rates out of negative territory. However, there’s no decision yet on the timing of the policy shift.

On Monday, BoJ Governor Kazuo Ueda said that the possibility of achieving the central bank's inflation target was gradually rising and that it would consider adjusting policy if prospects of sustainably achieving the 2% target increased sufficiently.

On the other hand, the cooling inflation figures last week fueled expectations that the Federal Reserve (Fed) may cut interest rates in the coming year. This, in turn, exerts some selling pressure on the US Dollar. The US Core Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCE), which excludes energy and food prices, rose 3.2% YoY in November, below the market consensus of 3.3%. The monthly Core PCE figures arrived at 0.1% in the same period, weaker than the expectation of 0.2%.

The risk sentiment and the ongoing adjustments in central bank policies are expected to continue influencing currency movements amid the holiday season's thin trading. Later this week, the US Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index for December and the Initial Jobless Claims will be released on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. However, these figures might not have a significant impact on the market.