USDJPY soars to a near 4 month high on Thursday as dollar surges on Fed decision to slow pace of rate cuts. The Federal Reserve (Fed) decided to hold its benchmark federal funds rate in a range of 4.25%-4.5% at its July meeting on Wednesday and said in a post-policy conference that the US central bank has made no decisions about a potential policy change in September, and it may take a bit to assess the effect of tariffs on consumer prices. The greenback also drew support from stronger-than-expected US economic data that expanded at an annual rate of 3.0% for the April through June period. This was followed the 0.5% contraction in the first quarter and came in stronger than the expectation of 2.4%. Investors now await the US Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index and Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) this week for further cues. Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) board members decided to maintain the short-term interest rate target in the range of 0.40%- 0.50%, following the conclusion of the two-day monetary policy review meeting on Thursday. The Japanese central bank extended the pause into the fourth consecutive meeting after having hiked the interest rate by 25 basis points (bps) to 0.50% in January. The USDJPY pair hit above 149 mark and is currently quoting at 148.84, down almost half a percent on the day. On the NSE, JPYINR Aug futures are holding around 59.40.

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