The yen broadly held its gains after the Bank of Japan left its benchmark rate unchanged in an 8-1 vote, while signaling underlying inflation had reached its 2% target and opening the door to a December hike. The BOJ also accelerated the pace of ETF sales to about ¥860 billion ($5.5 billion) a year. The focus now falls on Governor Kazuo Ueda’s press briefing around 3:30 p.m. local time.

Here’s what strategists are saying: Moh Siong Sim, an FX strategist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. “No surprises from the BOJ. The indication that official inflation target has been achieved signals further tightening ahead. This should be supportive of the JPY.”“But oil is complicating the near-term USD/JPY outlook. The risk of renewed US-Iran escalation after the US midterms has send oil prices higher and could prevent USD/JPY from fully benefiting from a weaker USD backdrop due to the AI jitters.”Shogo Karitani, strategist at Minato Bank Ltd.

“The ETF sales came as a surprise. They were seen as hawkish in the sense that they represent a further step toward monetary policy normalization, prompting some modest yen buying.”“The inflation-related language in the statement was broadly in line with expectations. The BOJ indicated that underlying inflation has reached around its 2% price stability target.”“The ETF sales are primarily an equity-market issue, so for the FX market, the focus now shifts to Governor Ueda’s press conference for clues on the future direction of monetary policy.”

Homin Lee, senior macro strategist at Lombard Odier“The characterisation that inflation is now at a level consistent with the policy target is effectively the declaration of victory in the reflation efforts that began in 2012 and through Abenomics. This statement, along with the upside risk assessment for prices, clearly paves the way for additional rate hikes that resume in December this year.”“We believe that Ueda will be slightly clearer about the BOJ’s hawkish bias in the afternoon press conference, as doing so would anchor the market expectation for December policy meeting and reduce undue complication vis-a-vis currency market intervention. We believe that the scenario of BOJ’s quarterly rate hikes should be sufficient to anchor the yen’s value vs. USD in the current range of 155-160, particularly because the upside for USD/JPY pair is capped by the credible threat of market interventions.”

Kazuki Sawamura a strategist at Shinkin Asset Management“For the ETF sales, the previous stance — that the holdings would be sold over more than 100 years to avoid affecting stock prices — had provided reassurance to investors. With the pace of sales now set to accelerate, however, investors may start thinking that if stocks rise again, the pace could be accelerated further. I’m concerned that this could weigh on the market’s upside over the longer term.”“That said, the actual supply-demand impact of the ETF sales is limited. The sales will amount to around ¥10 billion per day, compared with roughly ¥10 trillion in daily trading value on the Prime Market, equivalent to just 0.1%.”