Asian session: The yen fell

The yen fell against all of its 16 major peers after Japan posted a bigger-than-estimated trade deficit and gains in stocks reduced demand for haven assets. In Japan, imports exceeded exports by 932.1 billion yen ($9.5 billion) in September, the finance ministry said in Tokyo today. That was more than the 918.6 billion trade gap expected by economists in a Bloomberg News survey and compared with a revised 962.8 billion deficit in August.

Japan’s currency weakened as Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda pledged to continue easing to achieve stable inflation.

The dollar traded near the weakest since February against major counterparts before data forecast to show U.S. unemployment held above the threshold for the Federal Reserve to start tapering stimulus. Fed policy makers had pledged since December they won’t consider raising the interest rate as long as the unemployment rate exceeds 6.5 percent. The jobless rate held at 7.3 percent last month, economists in a Bloomberg poll projected before the Labor Department data on Oct. 22. The release was postponed from Oct. 4 because of the partial government shutdown. Economists in a separate Bloomberg survey estimate nonfarm payrolls increased by 180,000 workers last month.

The 17-nation euro was 0.2 percent from the strongest in more than eight months ahead of a report this week which may show the region’s consumer confidence was the highest since July 2011. In Europe, an index of consumer sentiment probably rose to minus 14.5 this month, the highest since July 2011, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg before the European Commission data on Oct. 23.

EUR / USD: during the Asian session the pair fell to $ 1.3665

GBP / USD: during the Asian session, the pair traded in a range of $ 1.6150-70

USD / JPY: during the Asian session the pair rose to Y98.10

Monday is a fairly quiet data session on both sides of the Atlantic, as the markets prepare for the catch-up up US data later in the week. The main US release is scheduled for Tuesday at 1230GMT, when the September jobs data will finally be published. Early European data sees the release of the German September PPI numbers at 0600GMT. Analysts are looking for an on month fall of 0.7% on the month. At 0800GMT, the Italian August industrial orders numbers will cross the wires. Economists are looking for a modest improvement of July's -2.2%.