The US dollar drifted sideways in subdued trading here this afternoon, as the market awaited the testimony of US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke to the US Congress, and the release of important US data, dealers said At 3.08 pm (0708 GMT) here, the dollar was at 117.60 yen, down from 117.72 yen in Tokyo just over 3-1/2 hours earlier. The euro was at 1.1917 usd, down from 1.1919 usd in Tokyo Bernanke is due to give the Fed chairman's semi-annual testimony to the House of Representatives financial services committee later today. Tomorrow, he is due to testify before the Senate banking committee Dealers said that before be speaks, the market may be distracted briefly by the release of the US Treasury International Capital Systems data for December. The median estimate for the TICS figure in a Market News International survey is 70 bln usd, with the estimates ranging from 65-92 bln usd Dealers said that future US monetary policy is not as clear as it was last year, and that market players were reluctant to place any firm bets on what Bernanke may say "We expect Chairman Bernanke's testimony to the House today to underscore that the US economy still appears to be relatively firm, and that core inflation hovers at the higher end of the Fed comfort zone of 1-2 pct," United Overseas Bank (UOB) said in an analysis "Therefore, this would suggest that the near-term tightening bias still remains intact," the UOB analysis said. "However, we do not expect him to provide explicit forward-looking guidance on Fed policy, simply because future policy decisions have indeed become more conditional and data-dependent." Indeed, while many players are still confident Bernanke will signal that more interest rate hikes are in the offing, there is a strong risk of a dollar retreat should he not do so, dealers said "If Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke doesn't clearly signal that monetary tightening will continue in testimony today and tomorrow to Congress, then we could see the US dollar give back more of its gains," wrote a Singapore-based analyst from Liechtenstein's LGT Bank