• The dollar crawled up on Friday as the dust settled from its tumble overnight to a three-week low, although gains were limited ahead of the U.S. non-farm payrolls due out later in the session.
The dollar index against a basket of major currencies was up 0.1 percent at 101.610 after dropping overnight to as low as 101.300, its lowest since Dec. 14. It was on track to lose about 0.8 percent on the week.
• If December's employment report misses the mark, it wouldn't surprise some of the sourpusses in the bond market.
Bond traders were pricing in a soft jobs number after Thursday's ADP payroll data came in at 153,000 private sector payrolls for December, well below the 175,000 expected. ISM non-manufacturing data also showed weakness in the employment component.
Economists are expecting 178,000 nonfarm payrolls in Friday's 8:30 a.m. ET government report, according to Thomson Reuters. Other consensus forecasts were higher, including at 185,000
• A raft of data from China in coming weeks is expected to show the world's second-largest economy carried solid momentum into 2017, thanks to heavy government stimulus and a construction boom that breathed new life into its ailing smokestack industries.
China is due to report fourth-quarter and full-year gross domestic product on Jan. 20. GDP grew at exactly 6.7 percent for each of the first three quarters, smack in the middle of the government's 2016 target range of 6.5-7 percent.
China's central bank Friday guided the yuan stronger at the fastest pace in a decade against the dollar, stepping up efforts to support the currency amid concerns over capital outflows from the world's second-largest economy.
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) set the yuan reference rate at 6.8668 against the dollar, compared with 6.9307 on Thursday. The 0.9 percent change over the previous day's fixing was the greatest since 2005, according to Reuters data.
• The Japanese government defended Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) on Friday as an "important corporate citizen" of the United States, after President-elect Donald Trump singled out the automaker and threatened to slap punitive tariffs on its Mexico-built cars.
Toyota shares fell more than 3 percent before recovering, and Honda Motor Co (7267.T) and Nissan Motor Co (7201.T) slid around 2 percent - even as the government and analysts sought to brush off the impact of the attack.
• Oil prices dipped on Friday over lingering doubts that some producers might not implement announced production cuts in an attempt to curb global oversupply.
Brent crude futures, the benchmark for international oil prices, were trading at $56.76 per barrel at 0756GMT, down 13 cents from their close the previous day.
In the United States, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $53.65 a barrel, 11 cents below their last settlement.
Reference: CNBC,Reuters
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