Asian session: The yen declined

The yen declined against all its 16 major peers after a White House official said President Barack Obama will nominate Janet Yellen today to head the Federal Reserve, boosting demand for higher-yielding assets. Fed Vice Chairman Yellen, 67, would succeed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, whose term ends Jan. 31. She was the favorite in surveys of economists and had the backing of 20 members of the Senate Democratic caucus who signed a July 26 letter to Obama.

The Bloomberg U.S. Dollar Index was near its lowest closing level in seven months before the Fed releases minutes of last month’s meeting when it unexpectedly refrained from trimming bond purchases. The congressional standoff that’s halted the release of key economic data and risks a breach of the U.S. debt limit continues. U.S. House Speaker John Boehner insisted yesterday on immediate negotiations with Obama, rejecting the president’s stance that he’ll talk only after the shutdown ends and the risk of default is pushed back. Republicans have sought spending cuts and changes to Obama’s health-care law. The U.S. borrowing authority lapses on Oct. 17.

The euro rose before a report forecast to show German industrial production rebounded in August and the European Central Bank president speaks today. Industrial production in Germany probably rose 1 percent in August after declining 1.7 percent in the previous month, a report today is forecast to show according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. ECB President Mario Draghi is scheduled to speak today at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

EUR / USD: during the Asian session the pair traded in the range of $ 1.3560-00

GBP / USD: during the Asian session, the pair traded in the range of $ 1.6060-20

USD / JPY: during the Asian session the pair rose to Y97.40

There is no early European data, with the first expected release from the UK at 0830GMT. The UK data includes the August industrial production release and the August trade balance.  More UK data is set to cross the wire in the afternoon session, when the NIESR releases their October monthly GDP forecast. The release comes the day after the IMF upped its 2013 UK growth forecast to 1.4% from an original 0.7%.