Currencies

• EUR/USD headed for a weekly decline against all of its 16 major peers as Greece and its creditors struggle to reach an agreement on a debt swap.
  • The euro was little changed at $1.3140 as of 2:40 p.m. in Tokyo from $1.3144 in New York yesterday, set for a 0.6 percent weekly decline.

• USD/JPY traded within one yen of a postwar high versus the dollar, raising speculation the country will intervene to weaken it.
  • The yen traded at 76.19 per dollar from 76.22. It rose to as high as 76.03 on Feb. 1, approaching the post-World War II record of 75.35 set on Oct. 31.

• AUD/CAD fell from near five-month highs as Asian stocks dropped, curtailing a global advance in equities and reducing demand for riskier assets.
  • Australia's dollar declined 0.2 percent to $1.0691 from yesterday, when it reached $1.0757, its strongest since Sept. 1.

Commodities

• Oil traded near a six-week low before a report forecast to show the U.S. added fewer jobs last month than in December.
  • Crude for March delivery was at $96.56 a barrel, up 20 cents, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 1:32 p.m. Singapore time. The contract fell 1.3 percent to $96.36 yesterday, the lowest since Dec. 19.

• Gold advanced to the highest level in eight weeks, gaining alongside equities and other commodities, as global manufacturing improved, weakening the dollar and boosting demand for alternative investments.
  • Gold rallied as much as 0.5 percent to $1,751.97 an ounce, the most expensive since Dec. 8, and traded at $1,746.30 at 1:20 p.m. in Singapore

Equities

• Asian stocks markets mostly lost ground on Friday, as investors digested a raft of earnings reports and remained cautious ahead of the key U.S. jobs report due out later in the day, although Chinese stocks managed to turn higher.
  • The MSCI Asia Pacific Index (MXAP) slipped 0.2 percent to 124.29 as of 2:49 p.m. in Tokyo, paring this week's advance to 1 percent.

• US stocks advanced, sending the Standard & Poor's 500 Index higher for a second straight day, as investors awaited today's employment report to gauge the strength of the recovery in the world's largest economy.
  • The S&P 500 advanced 0.1 percent to 1,325.54 yesterday.
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 11.05 points, or 0.1 percent, to 12,705.41.

• European (SXXP) stock advanced to a six- month high, with the Stoxx Europe 600 Index extending its best start to a year since 1998, as gauges of manufacturing increased from America to the euro area to China
  • The Stoxx 600 rose 4 percent in January for its second consecutive month of gains. The gauge has rallied 21 percent from its lowest level last year as the European Central Bank boosted lending to banks and U.S. economic reports exceeded estimates.

Sources: Bloomberg, FT