Asian session: The U.S. Dollar Index was little changed

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The U.S. Dollar Index was little changed before a report forecast to show durable goods orders fell for the first time in four months. Orders placed with U.S. factories for goods meant to last at least three years probably fell 4 percent in July from the previous month, when they gained 3.9 percent, according to the median estimate of economists polled by Bloomberg News before the Commerce Department data today.Fed officials last week rebuffed calls to take the threat of fallout in emerging markets into account when tapering quantitative easing.

The euro was near the highest in a month against the yen before data tomorrow forecast to show continued improvement in Germany’s business climate. In Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, business confidence probably rose for a fourth month in August. The Ifo institute’s business climate index, based on a survey of 7,000 executives, rose to 107 from 106.2 in July, economists predicted ahead of tomorrow’s report. The German unemployment rate likely held at 6.8 percent in August, according to a separate poll before the Aug. 29 data. The jobless rate hasn’t been lower than that since May 2012

In Japan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said today that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will make a decision on whether to raise the country’s sales tax before the start of the extraordinary Diet session set for the autumn.

EUR / USD: during the Asian session the pair traded in the range of $ 1.3375-90

GBP / USD: during the Asian session the pair traded in the range of $ 1.5560-80

USD / JPY: during the Asian session the pair fell below Y99.50

The approaching long weekend (UK closed today Aug26) prompted a paring back of long sterling positions ahead of this week's BOE Governor Carney speech (Wednesday, and expected to be dovish) as well as expected end month demand for euro-sterling.