The USD has seen some very marginal improvement in slow Asian trade, EUR/USD down at 1.4105 from a North American close Wednesday around 1.4145, while cable is down at 1.6450 from around 1.6475.
Comments from China’s Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei have helped support the dollar. The official says he is not aware of any plan to discuss a new reserve currency at next weeks G8 summit. He adds that the dollar is the main global reserve currency and hopes it remains stable.
Today’s two main events are the latest ECB meet and later U.S. non-farm payrolls/unemployment data.
The ECB is widely expected to keep rates on hold at 1%. We’ll probably get some details regarding the purchase of 60 bln euros of covered bonds, which is due to start later this month, but unlikely to get any news of additional QE measures.
June non-farm payrolls are expected around -365k, with unemployment seen ticking up to 9.^% from previous 9.4%.