Japan’s MOF Asakawa: Market expects 2 or 3 US interest rate hikes this year

Dhwani Mehta FXStreet

Japan's Ministry of Finance (MOF) official, Masatsugu Asakawa, crossed the wires now, via Reuters, noting that Market expects 2 or 3 US interest rate hikes this year.

Author

Dhwani Mehta

FXStreet

Residing in Mumbai (India), Dhwani is a Senior Analyst and Manager of the Asian session at FXStreet. She has over 10 years of experience in analyzing and covering the global financial markets, with specialization in Forex and commodities markets.

EUR/USD eyes nine-day EMA barrier after rebounding from 1.1600

EUR/USD gains ground after registering modest losses in the previous session, trading around 1.1620 during the Asian hours on Friday. The technical analysis of the daily chart suggests an ongoing bearish bias as the pair remains within the descending channel pattern.

GBP/USD: Pound Sterling ticks up against US Dollar in countdown to US NFP

The Pound Sterling trades marginally higher to near 1.3365 against the US Dollar during the Asian trading session on Friday. The GBP/USD pair edges up as the US Dollar ticks down ahead of the United States Nonfarm Payrolls data for February, which will be published at 13:30 GMT.

Gold advances on increased safe-haven demand

Gold price recovers its recent losses from the previous session. The yellow metal advances as the broader precious metals market rebounds on safe-haven demand. However, the yellow metal is on track for its first weekly decline in five weeks as escalating Middle East tensions push oil prices higher, fueling inflation concerns and reducing bets on Federal Reserve rate cuts.

Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple at risk as US-Iran war extends

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple trade cautiously at press time on Friday, close to key support levels after a roughly 2% pullback the previous day. Bitcoin holds above $71,000, Ethereum at $2,000, and XRP continues to consolidate in a sideways range.

The market compass is pointing at a barrel of Oil

The Asian open is arriving with equities leaning the wrong way, and the reason is not complicated. The market’s compass needle has snapped firmly toward crude. In this tape, oil is not just another input price; it is the gravitational center around which every asset class is orbiting.