SINGAPORE--The Singapore dollar slipped slightly against its U.S. counterpart Friday, though investors mainly held their ground ahead of key U.S. jobs data due later in the global day.
The U.S. dollar drifted as high as S$1.2650 after changing hands at S$1.2632 late Asia on Thursday.
"Expect the U.S. labor market report due later today to hog the limelight," OCBC said in a note. "We think any slight negative deviation from consensus [expectations] is not expected to jolt the dollar beyond a kneejerk response, given the prevailing view that it would require an abrupt stuttering of the economy to derail the taper."
The U.S. government is set to release employment data for March later Friday.
Investors would also be on watch for the Monetary Authority of Singapore's semiannual monetary policy statement, due in the coming week or so, analysts say.
"Short of a global tail risk leading to a decline in domestic output, we expect policy to remain on hold in April with no change in the slope and width of the [Singapore dollar] policy band, as well as the level which it was centered at," Maybank said in a note. "We expect [the Singapore dollar nominal effective exchange rate] to remain at the stronger end of the band for much of April."
For next week, Maybank pegged S$1.2587 as support for the U.S. dollar, with resistance at S$1.2680.
Singapore government bonds were little changed across the yield curve.
