By rocky swift
TOKYO (Reuters) – The US dollar has headed for its third consecutive weekly profit, in order to ease concerns over investment in the world's largest economy, as a sign of progress in consultations with some of Washington's trading partners.
The dollar, the US Treasury Department and stocks bounced back from a sharp decline last month as President Donald Trump's volatile tariff policies robbed the fear of a recession and robbed confidence in US assets.
Wall Street gathered all night last month, driven by positive high-tech revenues and slightly better production reports that were expected, despite showing that the factory had more contracts to work on.
The focus changes to the release of farm pay ceremonies figures later on World Day.
“Better data will see US Treasury yields rise for two years, USD and US stocks rise and gold accelerate,” Chris Weston, Pepperston's research director, wrote in a memo.
The Dollar Index has been largely unchanged in early Asian trading, avoiding a 0.5% increase in the week of relatively light trading due to holidays. The greenback traded at 145.53 yen on Thursday at a three-week high.
The euro was close to a three-week low and remained unchanged at $1.1290. The Australian dollar rose 0.2% to $0.6396
China's state media said Thursday that the US is approaching China, calling for talks on Trump's tariffs, potentially signaling Beijing's openness to negotiations.
In Japan, the country's leading trade negotiators have told reporters that they would like to hold another meeting in mid-May, starting with their latest talk in Washington.
Overnight, data showed that initial unemployment claims of the recent week had skyrocketed to two months high.
Market participants are now turning to non-farm pay reports for signs about when the Federal Reserve will resume its cut rates. Wall Street economists are forecasting 130,000 new jobs created last month compared to 228,000 printed materials seen in March.
“In our view, FOMC needs time and more data to assess the impact of tariffs on inflation,” ANZ analyst said in a note to clients.
“As long as the labor market is supported, the FOMC will focus on inflation.” (This story was revised to revise the month of comparative non-farm pay data, which takes place from March to March on February 11th.)
(Reporting by Rocky Swift, Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
