Asian session: The yen strengthened against most of its major peers

The yen strengthened against most of its major peers as indications of slowing global growth and concern that Europe’s debt crisis is worsening fueled demand for haven assets. The Japanese currency headed for a sixth weekly gain against the dollar as Asian stocks fell before a report forecast to show the U.S. jobless rate held above 8 percent. U.S. nonfarm payrolls probably increased by 100,000 last month, while the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 8.2 percent, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News before the Labor Department publishes its monthly report today. The jobless rate has stayed above 8 percent for 41-straight months. The Fed refrained from boosting monetary stimulus at a two- day meeting that ended on Aug. 1, while indicating a sluggish economy may prompt further steps to boost growth.

Demand for the euro was limited after a European Central Bank meeting yesterday failed to deliver measures to persuade investors the region’s fiscal dilemma can be resolved. ECB officials are working on a strategy to buy bonds in sufficient quantities to bring down borrowing costs for the region’s most indebted nations, Draghi said. Details will be released in coming weeks, he told reporters at a news conference yesterday in Frankfurt. The ECB kept its benchmark interest rate at 0.75 percent at its policy meeting yesterday, in line with the forecast of 51 of 55 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. Four predicted a reduction to 0.5 percent.

Retail sales in the euro zone may have fallen 0.1 percent in June from the previous month, when they grew 0.8 percent, a survey showed before the European Union’s statistics office releases its figures today.

EUR / USD: during the Asian session the pair was trading between $ 1.2165-$ 1.2185.

GBP / USD: during the Asian session the pair retreated from yesterday's low.

USD / JPY: during the Asian session the pair fell below yesterday's low.

Friday morning sees the release of the European services PMIs,including Spain at 0713GMT expected to come in at 43.9 and Italy at

0743GMT expected to come in at 43.5. The final services PMIs are also due from France at 0748GMT, Germany at 0753GMT and the main EMU data at 0758GMT. The preliminary numbers for each of these were 50.2, 49.7 and47.6. EMU data at 0900GMT sees retail trade for June, which is expected to come in at -0.3% m/m and -1.9% y/y.UK Markit/CIPS Services PMI data is also due, at 0828GMT, while at

0830GMT, UK Q2 Insolvency Statistics are also due. Hourly earnings are expected to rise 0.2% while the average workweek is forecast to stat at 34.5 hours after rising in June. At 1400GMT, the US ISM non-manufacturing index is expected to fall slightly to a reading of

52.0 in July after dipping sharply in June. Late US data sees the 2015GMT release of C&I Loans.