Forex Today: Major pairs hold steady ahead of mid-tier US data

Here is what you need to know on Thursday, August 17:

Major currency pairs trade near Wednesday's closing levels early Thursday amid a lack of catalysts. The US Dollar Index, which touched its highest level since January at 103.60 earlier in the day, consolidates its weekly gains below 103.50 in the European session and US stock index futures trade modestly higher following the selloff seen in Wall Street on Wednesday. Weekly Initial Jobless Claims and Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's Manufacturing Survey will be featured in the US economic docket later in the day.

Minutes of the Federal Reserve's July policy meeting showed late Wednesday that a couple of policymakers indicated that they favored leaving the policy rate unchanged. Nevertheless, the publication further noted participants agreed inflation risks could require further policy tightening. According to the CME Group FedWatch Tool, markets are currently pricing in a more than 30% probability of the Fed raising the policy rate once again by 25 basis points before the end of the year. Meanwhile, the benchmark 10-year US yield stays in positive territory near 4.3%.

During the Asian trading hours, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported that the Unemployment Rate rose to 3.7% in July from 3.5% in June. Full-time Employment declined more than 24,000 in the same period and the Participation Rate ticked down to 66.7%. AUD/USD came under bearish pressure after the jobs report and was last seen losing nearly 0.5% on the day at around 0.6400.

The data from Japan revealed that Machinery Orders contracted by 5.8% on a yearly basis in June. Imports and Exports decreased 13.5% and 0.3%, respectively, in the same period. USD/JPY showed no reaction to these figures and touched its highest level since November at 146.56 in the Asian session before retreating to the 146.20 area.

EUR/USD dropped to a multi-week low below 1.0900 and failed to stage a rebound in the Asian session. The pair stays relatively quiet below that level in the European morning.

Despite the broad-based USD strength, GBP/USD managed to post modest daily gains on Wednesday, supported by the UK inflation data. The pair fluctuates in a tight range below 1.2750 on Thursday. The UK's Office for National Statistics will release Retail Sales data for July on Friday.

Pressured by rising US T-bond yields, Gold price continued to push lower on Wednesday and touched its weakest level since March below $1,890. Early Thursday, XAU/USD recovers modestly but remains below $1,900.

Bitcoin broke below its three-week-old trading range on Wednesday and dropped to its lowest level since early June near $28,300. Early Thursday, BTC/USD seems to have stabilizes slightly above $28,500. Ethereum lost more than 1% on Wednesday and was last seen trading modestly lower on the day below $1,800.