United States Average Weekly Hours registered at 34.3, below expectations (34.4) in December

The EUR/USD pair is seen oscillating in a narrow range during the Asian session on Friday and consolidating its recent strong gains to an over two-week high, touched the previous day. Spot prices currently trade around the 1.1635 area, nearly unchanged for the day and below the 50-day Simple Moving Average pivotal barrier.

GBP/USD retraces its recent gains from the previous session, trading around 1.3150 during the Asian hours on Friday. The pair depreciates as the Pound Sterling declines amid rising concerns over fiscal discipline and political stability in the United Kingdom.

Gold revisits the $4,200 level early Friday after a sharp pullback, eyes weekly gains. US Dollar consolidates weekly losses amid data disruption and reduced December Fed rate cut bets. Gold remains a ‘buy-on-pullbacks’ trade amid a four-hourly bullish technical setup.

Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple trade in red on Friday after correcting more than 5%, 10% and 2%, respectively, so far this week. BTC has slipped below the $100,000 key level, while ETH and XRP have faced rejection at their resistance levels, signaling that bears remain firmly in control and that a deeper correction may be underway.

The Bank of Japan once again finds itself walking a tightrope between political pressure, economic data, and market expectations. With interest rates still anchored at 0.5%, speculation is growing over when Governor Ueda will pull the trigger on the next hike.

Ripple (XRP) is trading slightly below $2.50 at the time of writing on Thursday, after marking an intraday high at $2.52 buoyed by positive sentiment in the broader cryptocurrency market.