The currency markets are trading in rather tight range today with mild weakness seen in the Japanese Yen. BOJ conducted it's first operations under the new Yield Curve Control policy framework. Those include the program to buy securities maturing in one to three years. Another is on buying debt maturing three to five years. However, BoJ said that no bids were placed at these operations. The move was seen by the markets as an act to curb rising yields. But some analysts noted that the markets could indeed be testing BoJ's tolerance on how high yields could go. Meanwhile, BoJ governor Haruhiko Kuroda said that he doesn't have to accept surging JGB yields simply US yields are rising. And, he emphasized that BoJ could raise or lower the target of JGB yields depending on the situation.
Australian dollar also stays soft after slightly worse than expected job data. Employment market grew 9.8k in October versus expectation of 20.0k. Prior month's figure was also revised down from -9.8k to -29.0k. Full time employment rose 41.5k but part-time jobs lost -31.7k. Overall participation rate held steady at 64.4%. Unemployment rate was unchanged at 3 year low of 5.6%. The set of employment shouldn't change RBA's neutral stance on monetary policy. However, the weak Q3 wage growth data released earlier this week could prompt some discussion among the board members on whether further easing is needed.
A major focus today is Fed chair Janet Yellen's testimony to the Joint Economic Committee. Yellen is generally expected to strike and hawkish tone that lead to a December Fed hike. But markets will be more interested to see whether her outlook on the economy changed after Donald Trump's win in the election. But markets might be left disappointed as Yellen could opt for being diplomatic and avoid any concrete answer. Instead, she'd place more emphasis on the current outlook which is largely positive. Fed fund futures are pricing in more than 90% chance of a December hike. Attention will be on how the pricing for another hike by June, currently at around 45%, change after Yellen's speech.
Elsewhere, UK will release retail sales in European session. Eurozone will release October CPI final. Canada will release international securities transactions later in the day. US will release housing starts, CPI, jobless claims and Philly Fed survey.