Sydney Open Briefing: Friday, October 23, 2026

The Sydney session opens with a cautious tone following overnight moves. The JP225 and USTEC both declined by 1.45%, while XAUUSD fell 1.19%. The DE40 also saw a 0.45% drop. In contrast, the US30 gained 0.59%. The USDCHF moved lower by 0.40%. The overall risk sentiment is measured at -0.31 on a scale from -1 risk-off to +1 risk-on. Over the past 24 hours, the JPY has been the strongest currency, up 0.85%, followed by the CHF at +0.38%. The NZD was the weakest, down 0.51%, with the EUR down 0.33% and the AUD down 0.30%.

Traders will be watching for the CPI excl. Food and Energy y/y (JPY, Medium) data, released at Thu 23:30 UTC, with a consensus of 1.8% against a previous 1.9%. A significant focus for the session will be on Australian data. The Australia Employment Change (AUD, High) and Australia GDP q/q (AUD, Medium) are both scheduled for release at Fri 00:30 UTC. Later in the session, the CPI y/y (SGD, Medium) is due at Fri 05:00 UTC, with a consensus of 2.4% compared to the previous 2.3%.

Retail positioning shows divergence, with books disagreeing by 20 points on EURUSD. Crowd sentiment on XAGUSD shifted 9 points toward long in the last 24 hours, and on GBPJPY, the book moved 10 points toward long.

All eyes will be on the Australia Employment Change data for potential market impact.

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.