The Dollar's Recent Advance Slowed, The Euro Steady

The dollar's recent advance slowed as rate hike expectations were dented. The greenback was up 0.05 percent at 110.015 yen JPY= having gone as high as 110.675 overnight, its strongest in two weeks. 

The euro was steady at $1.1910 EUR= after plumbing a one-week low of $1.1823 overnight. 

The financial markets looked to the U.S. jobs report due at 1230 GMT for further clues on the state of the world’s largest economy. 

Economists polled by Reuters expect U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased by 180,000 jobs in August after surging 209,000 in July and average hourly earnings to have increased 0.2 percent after rising 0.3 percent in July. 

“The wages component of the jobs report will be key. If earnings are to have picked up along with employment, we will see a straightforward reaction with U.S. stocks and yields rising and the dollar being bought,” said Junichi Ishikawa, senior FX strategist at IG Securities in Tokyo. 

The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies was 0.1 percent lower at 92.603.The index slipped about 0.2 percent on Thursday and was poised to end 0.1 percent lower on the week in which it hit a 2-1/2-year low of 91.621 on geopolitical tensions before bouncing back. 

In commodities, crude futures fell, partly reversing sharp gains from the previous session, amid ongoing turmoil in the oil industry with nearly a quarter of U.S. refining capacity offline. 

U.S. crude futures CLc1 was down 0.5 percent at $47.01 per barrel. The futures had surged 2.8 percent on Thursday following a steep drop the previous day, during a week in which the hurricane roiled the oil market. 

Gold was near a 9-1/2-month high, supported as the dollar came off its recent highs and by lingering concerns over tensions in the Korean Peninsula.