Foreign exchange market. Asian session

(Time/ Region/ Event/ Period/ Previous/ Forecast/ Actual)

00:00 Japan Bank holiday

01:00 Australia HIA New Home Sales, m/m March 1.1% 4.4%

01:30 Australia Retail Sales, M/M March 0.7% 0.4% 0.3%

01:30 Australia Retail Sales Y/Y March 4.3% 0.3%

01:45 China HSBC Services PMI April 52.3 52.9

New Zealand's dollar slid as jobs data spurred interest-rate cut speculation. The kiwi lost as much as 1.3 percent to 74.59 U.S. cents after data showed New Zealand's jobless rate held at 5.8 percent last quarter. Economists had predicted a drop to 5.5 percent. The figures spurred ASB Bank Ltd. and Deutsche Bank AG to predict interest rate cuts this year.

A gauge of the dollar fell last month for the first time since June. A 2.95 percent decline was the most for a month since October 2011. Lower-than-forecast data, including first-quarter gross domestic product, fueled speculation the Federal Reserve will keep U.S. interest rates lower for longer. Friday's nonfarm payrolls is among the economic reports the data-dependent Fed uses to gauge the timing of a rate increase.

EUR / USD: during the Asian session the pair rose to $ 1.1240

GBP / USD: during the Asian session the pair rose to $ 1.5215

USD / JPY: during the Asian session the pair rose to Y120.05