USD/JPY TRADES SIDEWAYS NEAR 147.50 WITH EYES ON US DATA

• USD/JPY trades lacklustre near 147.50 ahead of US PPI, Retail Sales data.
• The US bond yields drop amid improved market sentiment.
• The uncertainty over BoJ quitting negative rates deepens.

The USD/JPY pair consolidates in a tight range around 147.70 in Thursday’s European session. The asset struggles to find a direction as investors stay on the sidelines ahead of the United States Producer Price Index (PPI) and Retail Sales data for February, which will be published at 12:30 GMT. The economic data will provide fresh guidance on interest rates as it could influence the inflation outlook.

The monthly Retail Sales are forecasted to have grown by 0.8% after declining at the same pace in January. It is expected that robust demand for automobiles and higher sales at gasoline stations boosted the Retail Sales data. An upbeat Retail Sales data would dampen bets in favor of Federal Reserve (Fed) rate cuts in the June policy meeting.

Currently, the CME FedWatch tool shows that there is a 69% chance that a rate cut will be announced in June. For the March and May policy meeting, the Fed is expected to keep interest rates unchanged in the range of 5.25%-5.50%.

S&P 500 futures generate significant gains in the London session, indicating a sharp improvement in the risk appetite of the market participants. The 10-year US Treasury yields surrender its entire gains, trades around 4.19%. The US Dollar Index (DXY) is broadly sideways around 102.80 ahead of the US data.

Meanwhile, the Japanese Yen remains under pressure as investors hope that the Bank of Japan (BoJ) will postpone its plans to exit negative interest rates. BoJ Ueda said on Tuesday that the economy has recovered on a few economic grounds, though consumption remains weak. Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said separately that Japan was not at a stage where it could declare a victory over deflation.