The Japanese yen traded lower in a busy data day for Asia, with key reports from New Zealand, Australia, China and Japan.
USD/JPY traded at 117.89, up 0.25%. The pair AUD/USD rose 0.12% to 0.7802. NZD/USD was volatile, falling earlier in the day on unemployment data, but recovering on central bank governor remarks to 0.7403, up 0.63%.
In Japan, December preliminary wages rose 1.6%, meeting expectations and clocking a 10th straight gain.
But Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Kikuo Iwata also said Wednesday real wages will eventually move out of the current long downtrend, though he urged the public again to be patient.
New Zealand's fourth quarter unemployment rate ticked up to 5.7%, compared to expectations for a drop to 5.3% from 5.4% in the third quarter with the participation rate at a record high of 69.70%. Later RBNZ Governor Wheeler said in prepared remarks that any change in the official cash rate was not immediately on the cards.
An
increase or a cut is possible but some way off as "a period of OCR
stability is the most prudent option," Wheeler told the Canterbury
Employers Chamber of Commerce, quoted by Investing.com.
Australia's AIGroup services index rose 2.4 points to 49.9, edging up to just shy of expansion territory. As well, National Australia bank said fourth quarter business confidence came in at +2, from +6 in the third quarter, while conditions were unchanged at +4.
In China the HSBC services PMI for January came in at 51.8, below the 52.8 expected.
The greenback pushed lower against the other major currencies overnight, after pessimistic U.S. factory orders data added to Monday's weak U.S. economic reports, dampening optimism over the strength of the country's recovery.
The U.S. Census Bureau said factory orders declined by 3.4% in December, worse than expectations for a decline of 2.2%. Factory orders fell by 1.7% in November, whose figure was revised from a previously reported decline of 0.7%.
