USD/JPY consolidates in a wide range as odds of BoJ’s stealth intervention elevate

• USD/JPY has remained topsy-turvy as hopes of BoJ’s intervention into currency markets are healthy.
• Investors are expected to make stock-specific action as US corporate earnings season will kick off next week.
• The release of the FOMC minutes would provide a detailed explanation behind the unchanged interest rate decision by the Fed.

The USD/JPY pair is demonstrating wide moves in a bounded territory near 144.50 in the early American session. The asset is expected to remain volatile as hopes of a stealth intervention by the Bank of Japan (BoJ) in the currency domain to provide support to depreciating Japanese Yen are higher.

Japan's top financial diplomat Masato Kanda said on Tuesday that authorities were in close contact with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other overseas officials "almost every day" on currencies and broader financial markets, as reported by Reuters.

S&P500 futures have extended losses in London ahead of the opening of United States markets after a holiday. Investors are expected to make stock-specific action as corporate earnings season will kick off next week.

The US Dollar Index (DXY) is showing volatile spikes as investors are awaiting the release of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes. The release of the FOMC minutes would provide a detailed explanation behind the unchanged interest rate decision announced by Federal Reserve (Fed) chair Jerome Powell in June policy.

As per the CME Fedwatch tool, an interest rate hike of 25 basis points (bps) to 5.25-5.50% is highly likely. While Atlanta Fed Bank President Raphael Bostic is in support of further skip in the policy-tightening spell. He believes that the central bank has reached a point where interest rates are sufficiently restrictive to bring down inflation to 2%.

Going forward, investors would shift their focus to the Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) data for June. The preliminary report shows fresh addition of 225K employees vs. the prior addition of 339K. The Unemployment Rate is seen declining to 3.6%. Upbeat labor market data might strengthen the need for more interest rate hikes from the Fed.