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• The dollar was little changed against a basket of currencies on Friday as monthly U.S. job growth data was its strongest in over 1-1/2 years while wage gains slowed more than expected, supporting the view the Federal Reserve would not quicken its pace on raising interest rates.

The index that tracks the dollar against six major currencies .DXY fell 0.038 point or 0.04 percent, to 90.141. The euro EUR= was down 0.03 percent, at $1.2306.

• The single currency also fell on Thursday as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said regional inflation remained subdued and rising protectionism was a risk.

• Traders bet a tightening labor market would buttress the case for the Fed to raise key borrowing costs later this month and possibly two more times later this year, but the pullback in wage gains should mitigate against four rate hikes in 2018.

• The yen fell broadly after the Bank of Japan stuck to its dovish policy stance. BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda sounded optimistic on growth, yet stressed there would be no plan to change monetary policy before reaching a 2 percent inflation target.

The dollar JPY= was last up 0.57 percent, at 106.81 yen, while the euro was up 0.54 percent, at 131.46 yen.

• The United States opened the way for more exemptions from its steel and aluminum tariffs on Friday, after pressure from allies and intense lobbying from lawmakers, further diluting the measures just a day after they were formally announced.

The European Union and Japan urged the United States on Saturday to grant them exemptions from metal import tariffs, with Tokyo calling for “calm-headed behavior” in a dispute that threatens to spiral into a trade war.

• After meetings with U.S. trade envoy Robert Lighthizer inBrussels, EU and Japanese trade officials said negotiations would need to continue.

• Europe’s trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom described talks with Lighthizer as “frank” and said they had not brought clarity on the exemption procedure. Talks would continue next week.

The European Union expects to be excluded from U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs but will go to the World Trade Organization to impose its own measures if Washington presses ahead, EU officials said on Friday.

European Commissioner Malmstrom, who coordinates policy for the 28-nation EU, the world’s biggest trading bloc, said she stood ready to go to the WTO, the international trade arbiter, to impose the bloc’s own safeguards within 90 days.

• U.S. President Donald Trump could exempt more countries from trade tariffs, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday.

• Chinese exports of steel products may continue to fall this year due to strong domestic demand and reductions in capacity due to environmental commitments, the chairman of state-owned mill Fujian Sangang Group Co Ltd said.

The prediction follows a 30.5 percent plunge in Chinese steel exports last year to 75.43 million tonnes, as strong domestic prices and high profits at home led to a drop in shipments abroad.

• Any trade war with the United States will only bring disaster to the world economy, Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan said on Sunday, as Beijing stepped up its criticism on proposed metals tariffs by Washington amid fears it could shatter global growth

• Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans on Friday said he wanted the U.S. central bank to keep interest-rate increases on hold until after March to allow inflation a chance to rise and even exceed the Fed’s 2-percent target.

The Fed is widely expected to raise rates later this month, and two more times before the end of the year. Traders stuck to those expectations after a government report early Friday showed job gains surged in February but average hourly wages rose just four cents, slower than expected.

• The U.S. economy is on track to expand at a 2.5 percent annualized rate in the first quarter as weaker-than-income wage growth in February lowered expected consumer spending and investment, the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDPNow forecast model showed on Friday.

The latest estimate on gross domestic product was slower than the 2.8 percent growth pace calculated on March 7, the Atlanta Fed said.

• The U.S. economy added the biggest number of jobs in more than 1-1/2 years in February, but a slowdown in wage growth pointed to only a gradual increase in inflation this year.

Nonfarm payrolls jumped by 313,000 jobs last month, boosted by the largest rise in construction jobs since 2007, the Labor Department said on Friday.

The payrolls gain was the most since July 2016 and triple the roughly 100,000 jobs the economy needs to create each month to keep up with growth in the working-age population. Data for December and January were revised to show the economy creating 54,000 more jobs than previously reported.

The blowout payrolls number cemented expectations the Federal Reserve will increase interest rates at its March 20-21 policy meeting. Sluggish wage growth, however, left economists divided on whether the U.S. central bank would upgrade its rate forecast for this year to four hikes from three.

Average hourly earnings edged up four cents, or 0.1 percent, to $26.75 in February, a slowdown from the 0.3 percent rise in January. That lowered the year-on-year increase in average hourly earnings to 2.6 percent from 2.8 percent in January.

The unemployment rate was unchanged at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent in February for a fifth straight month as 806,000 people entered the labor force in a sign of confidence in the job market. The average workweek rebounded to 34.5 hours after falling to 34.4 hours in January.

• U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday his planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could fizzle without an agreement or it could result in “the greatest deal for the world” to ease nuclear tensions between the two countries.

A time and place to meet has not yet been set, although the meeting is supposed to happen by the end of May.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that North Korea has promised to halt missile tests “through our meetings.”

• U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he rejected a demand from Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto that Trump should say that Mexico would not have to pay for a proposed U.S. border wall.

• Companies in Britain and the European Union face an extra 58 billion pounds in annual costs if there is a no-deal Brexit, with Britain’s vast financial sector set to be the worst-hit industry, according to a report on Monday.

• Oil prices rose nearly $2 on Friday, rebounding from two days of declines as Wall Street climbed on strong U.S. jobs data, while investors also grew hopeful that a planned meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un could ease geopolitical tensions.

Brent crude LCOc1 futures rose $1.88 to settle at $65.49 a barrel, a 2.96 percent gain. Brent traded between $63.69 and $65.63 during the session.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures rose $1.92 to settle at $62.04 a barrel, a 3.19 percent gain. U.S. crude traded between $60.14 and $62.14.

• Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said OPEC could agree in June to begin easing current oil production curbs in 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

Zanganeh also told the WSJ in an interview that Iran wanted OPEC to work to keep oil prices around $60 a barrel to contain U.S. shale oil production.

“If the price jumps [to] around $70 ... it will motivate more production in shale oil in the United States,” Zanganeh said.

Reference: Reuters, WSJ