Asian session: The yen slightly gained against the dollar

The yen slightly gained against the dollar and the euro in a rangebound Asia trade Friday, with investors sitting on their hands ahead of closely-watched U.S. jobs data.

Investors have found short-covering brought the dollar higher against the yen, but trading on Friday remained thin with many of Japanese corporate players still away on vacation. In addition, a wait-and-see mood persisted before the release of the U.S. jobs data for April to get more of an indication of what the Federal Reserve will do.

Economists predicted that nonfarm payrolls grew by 205,000 new jobs in April, while jobless rates likely stood at 5.0% and the hourly wage likely increased 0.3%.

Meanwhile, the Australian dollar tumbled after the Australia's central bank sharply revised down its forecasts for inflation over coming years. The Reserve Bank of Australia said in a quarterly statement on monetary policy that the outlook for inflation will remain "a key source of uncertainty" for some time, revising downward its consumer price inflation to between 1% and 2% on-year at the end of 2016, down from the bank's forecast in February of between 2% and 3%.

EUR/USD: during the Asian session the pair traded in the range of $1.1390-10

GBP/USD: during the Asian session the pair traded in the range of $1.4470-90

USD/JPY: during the Asian session the pair traded in the range of Y107.00-45

Based on Reuters materials