Yellen is speaking at the opening of the Monetary Policy Implementation and Transmission in the Post Crisis Period conference in Washington at 14.30 GMT

Last week Yellen gave testimony on regulatory matters and for the first time swerved off the script and gave us some hawkish comments relating to the Dec FOMC. That certainly caught me off guard as she has always stuck to the given subject in her appearances

Now we have to wonder if she'll do so again at her appearance in Washington today. She's far from Draghi-esque in her messages so perhaps we still shouldn't expect anything more hawkish than what she gave last week, if we get anything at all. The risk is there though so keep it in mind

If she does give anything along the lines of last week then look for any overexcited rallies to pull up at the higher tech levels. 123.30 and 123.55/60 are two I highlighted over the NFP and they're still very much in play. Only a real rocket of a comment would see those levels smashed

USDJPY 30m chart

Of course she could string out some dovish comments which would catch the market on the wrong foot and send the dollar lower. That would bring out the dip buyers no doubt

For me the trade will be selling any rally to those upper levels on parallel comments and looking to maybe jump into a dip on any mildly dovish comments. If we get nothing then the coffee will go on

Yellen's coming to town

She's not alone in speaking today;

  • The Fed's James Bullard and Jeffery Lacker also speaking in Washington. They'll be talking monetary policy at the Cato Institute. Bully Bullard kicks off at 14.05 GMT and Lacker comes in after Yellen at 14.45
  • At 15.15 Charles Evens pops up to speak on the economy in Chicago
  • 16.00 Germany's Jens Weidmann pops over to France for some cheap plonk and stops in Paris for a speech
  • 17.00 Sees BOE's Andy Haldane speaking to the Trade Union congress on London
  • 17.10 Fed's William Dudley talks shop to the New York Economics club
  • 18.45 ECB's Yves Mersch is looking at Castles in Windsor and soapboxing to the Financial Services Summit
  • 23.00 Eamonn gets some action via Stanley Fischer talking FX transmissions in Washington

That should keep us going for a while and there may even be others popping in for a chat too