- The yen was broadly firmer early on Friday, having hit a fresh 2-1/2 year high on the euro thanks in part to renewed demand for the safe-haven Japanese currency as Wall Street snapped a three-day rally.
The euro fell as far as 125.595 yen EURJPY=R, bringing into view the June 2013 trough of 124.940. It last stood at 125.870. The dollar slid towards 113.00 yen JPY=, but was still some way off a 15-month low near 111.00 set last week.
Traders said a fresh fall in oil prices had unsettled equity markets, prompting the flight to safety flow.
The euro also lost ground on the greenback, slipping to a two-week low of $1.1071 EUR=. It has since drifted back above$1.1100.
- The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Index improved from -3.5 to -2.8 in February.
- New claims for unemployment fell by 7,000 to 262,000 (exp. 275,000)
- The Federal Reserve's next policy move is much more likely to be a rate hike than a rate cut, although over the next two years a return to zero rates is a rising possibility, according to a New York Fed survey of primary dealers published on Thursday.
The regular survey, done last month before the Fed's Jan. 27 decision to keep interest rates on hold, found that primary dealers see about a 75 percent chance that the Fed's next policy move will be to increase that rate, with just over half expecting that rate hike to take place at the Fed's March meeting.
- U.S. oil futures fell in early Asian trade on Friday as record crude stocks renewed concerns about global oversupply, outweighing moves by oil producers including Saudi Arabia and Russia to cap oil output.
U.S. crude had slipped 30 cents to $30.47 a barrel by 0016 GMT, after settling up 11 cents in the previous session.
Iraq's oil minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said on Thursday that talks would continue between OPEC and non-OPEC members to find ways to restore "normal" oil prices.
- Rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Bahrain and Oman's credit ratings on Wednesday, in its second mass cut of large oil producers in almost exactly a year.
"The decline in oil prices will have a marked and lasting impact on Saudi Arabia's fiscal and economic indicators given its high dependence on oil," the ratings agency said in a statement.
Reference: Reuters, Arabian Business, MKS Group
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