Asian session: The Dollar Index rose

21:00 New Zealand ANZ Job Advertisements (MoM) January +0.4% -1.5%

The Dollar Index rose to a three- month high before the release of U.S. leading indicators and a regional manufacturing gauge that may add to evidence a recovery in the world’s largest economy is gathering pace. The Conference Board’s index of U.S. leading indicators probably rose 0.2 percent in January, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. It would be a second month of gains in the gauge, which consists of data including work hours of manufacturers and initial jobless claims. A Fed report on manufacturing in the Philadelphia area is projected to show a rebound, according to another poll.

Minutes of the Federal Reserve’s last meeting showed several policy makers advocated varying the pace of bond purchases. Some officials on the Federal Open Market Committee “emphasized that the committee should be prepared to vary the pace of asset purchases,” according to the minutes of the FOMC’s Jan. 29-30 meeting released yesterday in Washington. The U.S. central bank buys about $85 billion of government and mortgage securities a month to support growth, in the third round of so-called quantitative easing that tends to debase the dollar.

The euro slid for a second day before data that economists say will show manufacturing and services industries shrank in the currency bloc. In Europe, manufacturing and services industries probably contracted in February, albeit by less than the previous month, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. The manufacturing purchasing managers index is projected to be 48.5 compared with 47.9 in January, and the services PMI may come in at 49.0 from 48.6 a month earlier. A reading below 50 indicates contraction.

Australia’s dollar dropped as Asian stocks declined, sapping demand for higher-yielding assets, and the British pound fell to a 2 1/2-year low.

EUR / USD: during the Asian session the pair fell below $1.3250.

GBP / USD: during the Asian session the pair fell below $1.5150.

USD / JPY: during the Asian session the pair was trading around the level of Y93.60.