- Currencies traded in narrow ranges overnight. Focus will be on the nonfarm payroll data this afternoon and more news on the PSI negotiations in Greece.
- Stocks: Nikkei -0.51 %, Hang Seng +0.12 %, Shanghai Composite +0.95 % Dow Jones -0.09 %, S+P500 +0.11 %
- Finance ministers from the four euro- area countries with AAA ratings - Germany, Finland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands - will meet in Berlin today afternoon, a German Finance Ministry spokesman said.
- Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi turned up the heat on the currency market on Friday, saying speculative yen buying has gathered pace since last week and repeating his mantra that he was ready to act decisively to counter "one-sided" moves.
- Swiss National Bank interim Chairman Thomas Jordan said investors shouldn't doubt the central bank's capability to defend its franc ceiling, the Financial Times reported, citing an interview. "There should be absolutely no doubt whatsoever about the capability of the SNB to maintain the minimum exchange rate," he said, according to the FT. The current situation is challenging for the SNB, the newspaper cited Jordan as saying. "We feel the pressure on the Swiss franc because of the euro zone crisis and now we have a second front - political pressure," he said, according to the FT.
- Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher described policy makers' forecasts for the central bank's main interest rate as little more than speculation.
- Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher doesn't see justification for more QE, he tells reporters after speech in Austin, Texas.
- China's fledgling services sector weakened in January as property tightening measures weighed on demand, the official purchasing managers' survey showed on Friday, reinforcing the case for policy easing to bolster economic growth.
China Data Recap Period Survey Actual Prior
China Non-Manuf PMI Jan - 52.9 56.0
China HSBC Services PMI Jan - 52.5 52.5
- U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes there is a growing possibility Israel will attack Iran as early as April to stop Tehran from building a nuclear bomb, U.S. media reported on Thursday. The Washington Post first reported that Panetta was concerned about the increased likelihood Israel would launch an attack over the next few months. CNN said it confirmed the report, citing a senior Obama administration official, who declined to be identified. "Panetta believes there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June - before Iran enters what Israelis described as a 'zone of immunity' to commence building a nuclear bomb," Washington Post columnist David Ignatius wrote.
- Wegelin & Co., the 270-year-old private bank, became the first Swiss lender to face criminal charges in a broadening U.S. crackdown on offshore firms suspected of helping Americans evade taxes.
