The U.S. dollar wavered Thursday in anticipation of the closely watched U.S. non-farm payroll report due out later in the day which could hint at the Federal Reserve's monetary policy outlook.
The dollar came under renewed pressure Thursday, building on Wednesday’s flight due to fears about the strength of the U.S. economy and fading expectations that the Federal Reserve will deliver more interest-rate increases this year.
The euro EURUSD traded at $1.1211, up from $1.1109 late Wednesday in New York and topping the $1.12 level for the first time since October. The euro rose earlier in the day, despite a speech by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi that emphasized the “risks” surrounding a “wait-and-see” approach to embarking on further monetary stimulus.
Stock Markets Crawl
Asian equities edged up on Friday, spurred on by an overnight rise on Wall Street. U.S. stocks squeaked out a second straight day of gains on Thursday as a weaker dollar helped materials shares by lifting commodity prices, though disappointing forecasts from retailers and anxiety ahead of Friday's non-farm jobs report limited the advance.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan crept up 0.1 percent. The index was on track to end the week 0.3 percent lower. Shanghai shares crept up 0.1 percent, South Korea's KOSPI shed 0.1 percent and Australian shares lost 0.7 percent.
Japan's Nikkei underperformed, dropping 1.2 percent and headed for its fourth straight day of losses and Hong Kong's Hang Seng bucked the trend and rose 1 percent, while other gainers included Malaysian and Singapore shares.
According to Yutaka Miura, a senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo, "The biggest concern for the Japanese market now is whether the dollar will weaken against the yen further. You don't know how U.S. stocks will perform after the jobs data release, so most investors are nervous."