- The dollar edged up about 0.1 percent to 116.96 yen, moving away from Friday's 2-1/2 week low of 116.285 in a week in which it logged a 3.6-percent slide, its biggest weekly drop since July 2009.
The euro edged down about 0.2 percent to $1.1142, though it remained in sight of Friday's three-month high of $1.1250 scaled immediately after the headline figure of the payrolls data led investors to reduce their bets on further Fed rate hikes.
Crude oil futures slipped in thin trade, but were underpinned by glimmers of hope for steps by oil producers to address the global supply glut that has led to recent steep selloffs.
Saudi Arabia's oil minister Ali al-Naimi discussed cooperation between OPEC members and other oil producers to stabilize the global oil market with his Venezuelan counterpart on Sunday, according to state news agency SPA.
Brent crude was down 0.4 percent at $33.91 a barrel, while U.S. crude futures shed about 0.2 percent to $30.84.
- U.S. employment gains slowed more than expected in January as the boost to hiring from unseasonably mild weather faded, but rising wages and an unemployment rate at an eight-year low suggested the labor market recovery remains firm.
- Global markets have been in turmoil since the start of the year, with stocks and commodities prices reeling, eroding inflation and making central banks increasingly dovish - a trend that could continue with more weak economic data.
- China's January exports may have fallen for a seventh month with factories still battling falling prices, but an expected jump in bank lending may underscore the government's bid to put a floor under the slowing economy.
- China’s foreign-exchange reserves shrank to the smallest since 2012, indicating that the central bank sold dollars as the yuan’s retreat to a five-year low exacerbated depreciation pressure.
The world’s largest currency hoard decreased by $99.5 billion in January to $3.23 trillion, according to a People’s Bank of China statement released on Sunday. The contraction was less than a Bloomberg survey’s median estimate of a $120 billion drop. The stockpile slumped by more than half a trillion dollars in 2015, the first-ever annual decline.
Policy makers fighting to hold up the weakening yuan amid slower economic growth, plunging stocks and increasing outflows have been burning through the reserves. The draw-down has continued since the central bank’s surprise devaluation of the currency in August, when the stockpile tumbled $94 billion, a monthly record before December’s unprecedented $108 billion decline.
- Hours after a North Korean long-range rocket launch, Washington and Seoul said they were in consultations over the deployment of an advanced missile defense shield in South Korea.
Reference: Reuters, Kitco, Bloomberg, Nasdaq
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