Sydney Open Briefing: Friday, August 28, 2026

The Sydney session opens with a slightly risk-on tone, indicated by the +0.17 reading on the risk meter. US equities saw modest gains, with the US30 up +0.27%, USTEC gaining +0.23%, and the US500 rising +0.18%. European and Asian indices, however, showed declines, with the UK100 down -0.39% and the JP225 falling -0.23%. The Australian Dollar is the strongest performer over the last 24 hours, up +0.26%, while the Japanese Yen is the weakest, down -0.16%.

Recent US data presented mixed signals. Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Production came in at 17 against a 21 consensus, a -19.0% surprise. However, the Manufacturing Composite Index surprised positively at 10 versus 7, a +42.9% surprise. Jobless claims data was slightly better than expected, with Continuing Jobless Claims at 1.778M against 1.79M consensus, and the Initial Jobless Claims 4-Week Average at 205.5K versus 208.459K. The EIA Natural Gas Storage Change surprised significantly at 15B compared to 2B consensus, a +650.0% surprise. In Canada, the Current Account showed a substantial positive surprise at 8.836B versus a -4.065B consensus.

Crowd positioning shifts show the book moved 8pt toward short on USDCAD and 10pt toward long on GBPUSD in the last 24 hours. EURGBP saw a crowd flip, moving from 55% long to 51% short.

Traders will be watching the Tokyo CPI excl. Food and Energy y/y and Tokyo Core CPI y/y releases for Japan at Thu 23:30 UTC.

Scheduled this session (High and Medium impact)

Times are UTC. This brief describes measured market state and the published schedule. It is not financial advice and nothing in it is a trade recommendation.