Forex Today: Yen & Yuan weaken in Asia, USD firmer ahead of NFP

A quiet affair in the Asian session today, with limited economic data from the Asia-pac economies, while the greenback made a solid comeback against most majors in a bout of profit-taking ahead of the US payrolls data. Both the yen and yuan dropped sharply amid broad USD weakness, with the Yuan having ignored PBOC strongest fix since 2005. Amongst the Antipodeans, the Aussie was left unimpressed by upbeat Aus trade figures.

Looking ahead, we have the German factory orders and retail sales data due out shortly, followed by the Eurozone retail sales due out in the European session. While the main risk event for today remains the US labor market report, although attention will be also paid to the Canadian trade and employment data, besides the US trade balance, factory orders data, and Fed member Evan’s speech.

Main topics in Asia

PBOC sets USD/CNY at 6.8668 vs 6.9307

Asian stocks on the back foot ahead of NFP

The Asian stock markets are seen trading range-bound to lower so far this Friday, tracking negative close on the Wall Street overnight as well as the Chinese yuan moves, which dominates Asia for the second day in a row.

HIBOR rate fixed at 61.333%

The Hong Kong interbank offered rate (HIBOR) also known as Hong Kong offshore Yuan overnight borrowing rate has been fixed today at 61.333%.

USD/CNY ignores PBOC hiking Yuan fix by most in 11 years

The Chinese currency weakened sharply against the American dollar on Friday, driving the USD/CNY rebound towards 6.9150 levels.

Key focus for the day ahead

US NFP Preview: Forecast is at a gain of 180K jobs – Goldman Sachs

Analysts at Goldman Sachs present a brief preview of the upcoming US non-farm payrolls data, which will be reported in the NA session.

US NFP and Eurozone consumer confidence amongst market movers – Rabobank

Michael Every, Head of FMR at Rabobank, lists down the key economic releases for the day.

German factory orders and Euro area retail sales in focus – Danske Bank

Analysts at Danske Bank expect that euro area retail sales and German factory orders will be the key economic releases in today’s European session.