US Session Open: Shorted AUD/USD and EUR/CAD, charting Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin, TerraUSD peg

The AUD/USD pair meets with a fresh supply during the Asian session on Friday and remains well within striking distance of a nearly two-week low, touched the previous day. Spot prices currently trade around the 0.7035 area as traders look to the key US macro releases before placing fresh directional bets.

The Japanese Yen shows weakness against the US Dollar during the Asian trading session on Friday. The USD/JPY pair holds onto gains near its weekly high of 155.20 posted on Thursday. The pair is under pressure as the US Dollar continues to outperform due to signals from Federal Open Market Committee Minutes of the January policy meeting that officials see no rush for interest rate cuts, with inflation remaining persistently above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

Gold sticks to recent gains around the $5,000-mark early Friday, biding time before the high-impact US macro events. The focus is now on the US fourth-quarter Gross Domestic Product, core Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index and the Supreme Court’s ruling on President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple are trading sideways within consolidation ranges on Friday, signaling a lack of directional bias in the broader crypto market. BTC rebounded from key support, and ETH is nearing the lower consolidation boundary, while XRP is holding at its lower trendline boundary. 

It was green across the board for US Stock market indexes at the close on Wednesday, with most S&P 500 names ending higher, adding 38 points (0.6%) to 6,881 overall. At the GICS sector level, energy led gains, followed by technology and consumer discretionary, while utilities and real estate posted the largest losses.

The number of United States (US) citizens submitting new unemployment insurance applications decreased to 206K, much lower than initial estimates of 225K, and down from the previous week’s revised 229K, according to the US Department of Labor.