Asian session: The yen extended its longest weekly losing streak since 1989

01:45China HSBC Services PMIDecember 52.150.6

The yen extended its longest weekly losing streak since 1989 against the dollar before U.S. data forecast to show hiring increased the most in four months. U.S. Labor Department data may show today that nonfarm payrolls rose by 153,000 last month, the most since August, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The report will follow figures from the ADP Research Institute yesterday showing companies in the U.S. added 215,000 workers in December, exceeding the 140,000 increase forecast by economists.

The U.S. currency rose for a third day versus the euro after minutes of the Federal Reserve’s last meeting showed policy makers may end their $85 billion monthly bond purchases this year, halting a program that tends to debase the greenback. A few members of the Federal Open Market Committee “expressed the view that ongoing asset purchases would likely be warranted until about the end of 2013,” minutes of their Dec. 11-12 meeting showed yesterday. “Several others thought that it would probably be appropriate to slow or to stop purchases well before the end of 2013, citing concerns about financial stability or the size of the balance sheet.” At that meeting, the FOMC announced Treasury purchases of $45 billion a month in addition to $40 billion a month of mortgage-debt purchases begun in September.

Australia’s dollar weakened against most of its 16 major counterparts after service-industry indexes for Australia and China dropped in December. HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics said today a purchasing managers’ index of Chinese non-manufacturing industries fell to 51.7 from 52.1 in November. A separate report from Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and the Australian Industry Group showed their gauge for the nation’s services industry decreased to 43.2 from 47.1. Readings below 50 signal contraction for both indexes.

EUR / USD: during the Asian session the pair fell to $ 1.3020.

GBP / USD: during the Asian session the pair fell to $ 1.6055.

USD / JPY: during the Asian session, the pair rose to Y87.85.

European data for Friday starts at 0700GMT when German retail sales area expected to come in at 0.4% m/m, -0.4% y/y. Friday also sees the Services PMI data from Europe, including Spain at 0813GMT and Italy at 0843GMT, with final details from France at 0848GMT, Germany at 0853GMT and the EMU number at 0858GMT. Data then continues at 1000GMT with flash HICP, which is expected to come in at 2.2%. UK data sees the CIPS/Markit Services PMI at 0930GMT along with House Purchase Approvals, Net Mortgage Lending, Consumer Credit and also M4 data. US data starts with the main event for Friday, as nonfarm payrolls are forecast to rise by 150,000 in December after increasing by 146,000 in November while the unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 7.7%. Hourly earnings are forecast to increase 0.1%, while the average workweek is expected to remain at 34.4 hours. US data at 1500GMT includes the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index and Factory Orders data.