Following yesterday’s market volatility sparked by the Australian jobs report, the schedule for the Friday Asian session (Thursday evening US time) appears notably light. With few data releases, traders should not expect many unique catalysts to influence the major currency pairs.

The session begins at 02:00 GMT with the LSEG IPSOS PCSI report on Australian consumer sentiment for December. While this indicator is less widely followed than the Westpac consumer sentiment survey, it still provides valuable insight into how Australian consumers are coping with current interest rates. The previous reading stood at 52.82.

Later, at 04:30 GMT, during Tokyo’s lunch period, final data on Japanese industrial production for October will be released. This includes revised month-on-month and year-on-year figures, along with capacity utilisation rates. The preliminary industrial production growth was 1.4% month-on-month and 1.6% year-on-year, with capacity utilisation previously reported at 2.5%. Barring any major revisions, these figures are unlikely to have a significant impact on USD/JPY, which remains more sensitive to US Treasury yields and overall market risk sentiment.

Given the light economic calendar, traders should be alert to month-end flows and potential profit-taking as positions are adjusted ahead of the weekend.

The key data release times for the session (all GMT) are:

02:00 – Australia: LSEG IPSOS PCSI (December) – Previous: 52.82
04:30 – Japan: Industrial Production Revised MoM (October) – Preliminary: 1.4%
04:30 – Japan: Industrial Production Revised YoY (October) – Preliminary: 1.6%
04:30 – Japan: Capacity Utilisation MoM (October) – Previous: 2.5%

No significant central bank statements or political speeches are scheduled during this period.

Original Source: Adam Button of investinglive.com