The
euro was little changed against the dollar in Asia as investors
preferred to wait on the sidelines ahead of the key US non-farm payroll
report due later today. Also euro direction will be driven by
developments at the European Union summit next week. Merkel and Sarkozy
are meeting on Monday to outline joint proposals to put at the summit
and hopefully will come up with some solutions to ease market
jitters. Investors are waiting for the so called big-bazooka solutions
next week and the euro’s strength hinges on their feasibility. EURUSD
moved into a tighter range of 1.3447 1.3486.
US jobs data due
at 1330 GMT is expected to show an increase of 122,000 jobs in November,
up from October’s 80,000. A steady unemployment rate of 9.0 percent is
forecast. Investors anticipate a good result because recent U.S.
economic figures have been fairly solid. But if the data are
worse-than-expected outcome this would fuel expectations of near-term
easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve, and that would likely weigh on the
dollar.
The British pound opened in Asia at 1.5688 and traded lightly throughout the session, to close at 1.5675.
Against the yen, the dollar was bid to lift it to 77.86 yen but
overall the USDJPY pair is still trapped in a 77-78 range with investors
wary of more massive intervention by Japan.
The Australian
dollar was hemmed in an extremely tight range but traded not far off a
three-week high of 1.0329 against the USD set on Wednesday after the
coordinated central bank action to increase liquidity in the markets.
AUDUSD traded Asia between 1.0206-1.0243.
Subject: News NFP-Non Payment Payroll 
Fri Dec 02, 2011 9:30 pm
