On the global front, the US dollar held steady in Asian trading on Friday morning after touching a three-month high earlier this week. Traders are carefully assessing mixed signals emerging from central bank decisions, earnings in the technology sector, and a temporary tariff truce between the US and China.
The US Dollar Index remained firm at 99.478 on Thursday after a volatile Wall Street session that left global markets uneasy. Against the Japanese yen, the greenback dipped 0.1% to ¥153.935, slightly below its nine-month peak. This minor decline followed fresh data showing that Tokyo’s core consumer prices rose 2.8% year-on-year in October, surpassing expectations.
The data suggested that inflation in Japan’s capital remains above the target, complicating the Bank of Japan’s policy path on interest rates. Meanwhile, traders have scaled back expectations for another Federal Reserve rate cut at its upcoming December 10 policy meeting. According to the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, the probability of a 25-basis-point rate cut has fallen to 74.7%, down from 91.1% a week earlier. In bond markets, the US 10-year Treasury yield hovered near a three-week high of 4.0989%, slightly up by 0.59 basis points from the previous close of 4.093%.
