Wayne McDonell: "JPY to strengthen in the next three to four weeks"

AUD/USD inches lower toward 0.7050 in Tuesday's Asian trading, reacting little to the RBA February Minutes, which reinforced a tightening bias. The hawkish outlook, however, fails to provide any impetus to the Australian Dollar as the timing of the next rate hike is unclear. In contrast, bets for more rate cuts by the Fed keep the US Dollar bulls on the defensive and act as a tailwind for the Aussie amid the underlying bullish sentiment.

USD/JPY has turned south to test the 153.00 level after having faced resistance near the 153.75 zone in Asian trading on Tuesday. The divergent BoJ-Fed policy expectations offer some support to the Japanese Yen. That said, Japan's weak Q4 GDP print, released on Monday, tempered bets for an immediate BoJ rate hike. This, along with the underlying bullish sentiment, could limit the pair's downside. 

Gold price extends its losses for the second successive session, trading around $4,930 per troy ounce during the Asian hours on Tuesday. Gold price is trading nearly 0.7% lower at the time of writing as trading volumes stayed thin due to market holidays across China, Hong Kong, and other parts of Asia.

The artificial intelligence (AI) cryptocurrency segment is witnessing heightened volatility, with top tokens such as Near Protocol (NEAR) struggling to gain traction amid the persistent decline in January and February.

The January CPI data give the impression that the Federal Reserve is finally winning the war against inflation. Not only was the data cooler than expected, but it’s also beginning to edge close to the mystical 2 percent target. CBS News called it “the best inflation news we've had in months.”

Major currency pairs traded little changed on Monday as stock and bond markets in the United States (US) remained closed due to the Presidents' Day holiday.