USD/JPY looks to close day modestly higher near mid-111s

• 10-year US T-bond yield pushes higher on Wednesday.
• Disappointing data weigh on the greenback.
• Wall Street stays in the positive territory.

For the second straight day on Wednesday, the USD/JPY pair struggled to make a decisive move in either direction and spent the second half of the day in a very tight range a little below the 111.50 mark. As of writing, the pair was up 0.13% on the day at 111.45. 

After rising more than 2.5% on Monday, the 10-year US T-bond yield staged a technical correction on Tuesday and turned north, once again, to gain around 1.5% on the day. Although the USD/JPY pair usually is tightly correlated with the 10-year T-bond yields, the broad-based selling pressure surrounding the greenback didn't allow the pair to climb higher. Moreover, following a positive start to the day, major equity indexes in the U.S. retraced a large portion of their early gains to help the JPY stay resilient against its rivals.

Today's data from the U.S. showed that the economic activity in the service sector expanded at a slower pace than expected in March with the ISM's and Markit's PMI figures falling short of analysts' forecasts. "The non-manufacturing sector’s growth cooled off in March after strong growth in February. Respondents remain mostly optimistic about overall business conditions and the economy. They still have underlying concerns about employment resources and capacity constraints,” the ISM noted in its publication.

Additionally, the ADP announced that employment in the private sector increased by 129,000 in March to miss the market estimate of 170K. The US Dollar Index, which advanced to its highest level since early March near mid-97s yesterday, was last down 0.25% on the day at 97.08.