After moving sideways in a tight consolidation channel above the 109 handle during the first half of the day, the USD/JPY rose sharply in the last hour boosted by improved market sentiment and the strong USD-buying wave. As of writing, the pair was up 0.31% on a daily basis at 109.72. The monthly report published by the ADP today showed that the employment in the private sector increased by 213,000 jobs from December to January to surpass the analysts' estimate of 175,000 by a wide margin. With the initial market reaction to the data, the greenback gathered strength against its rivals and the US Dollar Index came within a touching distance of the 96 mark. At the moment, the index is up 0.15% on the day at 95.95. Additionally, major equity indexes in the U.S. started the day in the positive territory to reflect a high appetite for risk-sensitive assets and weighed on the traditional safe-havens such as the JPY. Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite gain more than 1% in the early trade. Later in the day, the FOMC will be publishing its monetary policy statement and Chairman Powell will deliver his remarks on the policy outlook at a press conference. “We expect the Fed’s ‘data dependence’ to come down to momentum in business investment on the one hand and employment on the other. We believe financial conditions and global growth concerns will continue to play a role via their impact on investment and employment,” Standard Chartered analysts argued in a recently published article.