Encouraging US jobs data will strengthen the case for an interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve. Given the weak ISM manufacturing report, markets will look to Friday's payrolls to see if the Fed can risk raising rates this month or later this year. "While the US manufacturing ISM did undershoot expectations by quite a margin, it is worth remembering that the Fed hiked last year when the ISM manufacturing was at 48.0 and had been sub-50 for three consecutive months," wrote Sharon Zellner, a senior strategist at ANZ. "There is therefore potential for markets to whipsaw should we see robust US jobs data tonight, going into the US Labor Day holiday weekend." The dollar was flat at 103.280 yen after coming down from a one-month high of 104.00 overnight.

Source: dna September 02, 2016 03:00 UTC