Asian session: The dollar held declines

The dollar held declines against higher-yielding currencies before the U.S. government releases its monthly jobs report. U.S. employers probably added 130,000 workers to payrolls last month, trailing the 163,000 increase in July, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The Labor Department releases its figures today. The jobless rate held steady at 8.3 percent, economists forecast.

The euro traded near a two-month high after ECB President Mario Draghi said policy makers agreed to the unlimited purchase of government debt to reduce interest rates for struggling nations and help prevent a break-up of the European currency bloc. Draghi said yesterday the ECB will target government bonds with maturities of one to three years, including longer-dated debt that has a residual maturity of that length. Purchases will be fully sterilized, meaning the overall impact on the money supply will be neutral, and the ECB will not have seniority, he said. The central bank left its benchmark interest rate at 0.75 percent.

EUR / USD: during the Asian session, the pair traded in a range of $ 1.2625-$ 1.2645.

GBP / USD: during the Asian session, the pair traded in a range of $ 1.5921-$ 1.5935.

USD / JPY: during the Asian session, the pair rose to yesterday's high.

Europe data at 0600GMT includes German trade balance data for July and Q1/Q2 labour costs data. Spain industrial output for July then follows at 0700GMT. UK data at 0600GMT includes John Lewis Sales and the BDO High StreetSales Tracker. It is a busy day for UK data with PPI and industrial production data due at 0830GMT along with Q2 Construction New Orders and also the BOE/GfK NOP Inflation Attitudes Survey. US data starts at 1230GMT with the main release, when non-farm payrolls are forecast to rise by 129,000 in August after the 163,000 rise in July, as suggested by the recent improvement in jobless claims. The unemployment rate is forecast to hold steady at 8.3%. Later US data sees the 1900GMT release.