USD/JPY remains confined above 147.70 ahead of the Fed, BoJ rate decision

The USD/JPY pair remains confined in a range during the early Asian session on Wednesday. Traders prefer to wait on the sidelines ahead of the Federal Reserve (Fed) interest rate decision on Wednesday, which Fed is expected to keep rates unchanged at the 5.25%-5.50% range. The pair currently trades near 147.75, down 0.08% on the day.

The latest data from Japan’s Ministry of Finance showed on Wednesday that the nation’s Balance of Trade for August came in at ¥-930.5B, worse than the expectation of ¥-659.1 B. Meanwhile, Exports came in at -0.8% YoY versus -0.3% prior, better than expected at -1.7%. Imports improved to -17.8% from -13.6%, beating the estimation of -19.4%.

Early Wednesday, Japan's top currency diplomat Masato Kanda came out with verbal intervention remarks. Kanda stated that Japanese authorities are dealing appropriately with FX moves with a high sense of urgency.

Furthermore, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) will announce an interest rate decision on Friday. The BOJ is largely anticipated to maintain its short-term interest rate target of -0.1% and its 10-year bond yield target of around 0%. Markets are waiting to see whether Governor Kazuo Ueda would provide any new signals about the timing of a policy move and additional tweaking to its Yield Curve Control (YCC) at his press conference after the meeting.

Across the pond, the Federal Reserve (Fed) is scheduled to announce the two-day monetary policy meeting on Wednesday and is widely expected to hold the interest rates in the 5.25% to 5.5% range. This, in turn, might exert some selling pressure on the Greenback (USD) and act as a headwind for the USD/JPY pair. About the data, the US housing industry showed mixed results in August. The US Census Bureau revealed on Tuesday that US Housing Starts fell 11.3% while building permits surged 6.9%.

Moving on, traders will keep an eye on the Fed meeting decision on Wednesday at 18:00 GMT. On Friday, BoJ will announce its monetary policy decision. These events could trigger the volatility in the market and could give a clear direction to the USD/JPY pair.