Most major currencies traded in tight ranges on Friday amid thin year-end market conditions, while the U.S. dollar hovered near 12-week lows<\/strong> as investors weighed softer U.S. rate expectations and a fresh batch of Japanese economic data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Liquidity remained light across Asian and European FX sessions, with many market participants sidelined for the holidays. The U.S. Dollar Index<\/strong> was broadly unchanged during Asia hours, holding close to its weakest level since early October as bets on further Federal Reserve rate cuts in 2026<\/strong> continued to pressure the greenback. Softer U.S. Treasury yields have also capped dollar momentum, offering some support to regional currencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Japan, the USD\/JPY slipped 0.3%<\/strong>, after data showed Tokyo consumer inflation eased in December<\/strong>, but remained above the Bank of Japan\u2019s 2% target \u2014 reinforcing expectations that policymakers may continue gradual policy normalization<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, the broader macro picture remained mixed. Industrial production declined in November<\/strong>, reflecting ongoing softness in export-oriented manufacturing, while retail sales improved<\/strong>, underscoring resilient household spending. The contrasting signals kept the yen largely range-bound as traders avoided aggressive positioning into year-end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Europe, the EUR\/USD dipped 0.1%<\/strong>, while GBP\/USD fell 0.2%<\/strong>, with both pairs drifting modestly lower in subdued volumes. Investors largely stayed on the sidelines ahead of the year-end calendar, with attention expected to shift back to U.S. inflation and central bank signals<\/strong> in early January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With trading conditions thin and directional catalysts limited, FX markets continued to emphasize consolidation rather than trend-driven moves \u2014 leaving the dollar\u2019s soft bias and Japan\u2019s policy outlook as the primary themes guiding sentiment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most major currencies traded in tight ranges on Friday amid thin year-end market conditions, while the U.S. dollar hovered near 12-week lows as investors weighed softer U.S. rate expectations and a fresh batch of Japanese economic data. Liquidity remained light across Asian and European FX sessions, with many market participants sidelined for the holidays. The …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":53146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6827,49,37,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-daily-economic-reports","category-economic-reports","category-forex-markets","category-market-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122059,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122058\/revisions\/122059"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Yen steady as Tokyo inflation stays above BOJ target<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Euro and sterling edge lower in quiet trade<\/h3>\n\n\n\n