Forex - Aussie gains ahead of likely China trade data, yen steady

Investing.com - The yen held steady and the Aussie gained early Thursday in Asia as markets digested the Federal Reserves comments from its December policy meeting and looked ahead to possible China data.

AUD/USD traded at 0.8084, up 0.11%, while USD/JPY changed hands at 119.24, flat.

According to minutes of the Fed's December meeting minutes, the central bank pressed ahead with plans to begin raising interest rates later this year, although Fed officials said they could be "patient" in deciding when to begin the process.

China's trade data for December are possibly due today although there is no fixed time for the release. December data would confirm that China's annual trade surplus in 2014 hit a new record, having risen to $332.48 billion as of November. That's already larger than the previous record $262 billion set in 2007.

Elsewhere, Australia building approvals for November are expected to fall 3.5% month-on-month after an 11.4% rise in October.

In Japan, the BOJ's survey on consumer confidence and inflation expectations is due at 1330 (0430 GMT). In the previous survey for September, Japanese consumer confidence worsened from three months earlier for the second consecutive quarter as more people reported a fall in their own or family's income from a year earlier.

Overnight, the euro continued to trade at nine-year lows against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday, as strong U.S. economic reports lent further support to the greenback, while growing expectations for fresh easing measures by the European Central Bank continued to weigh on the single currency.

EUR/USD hit 1.1833 early Thursday in Asia, down 0.05%.

The dollar strengthened broadly after payroll processing firm ADP said non-farm private employment rose by 241,000 last month, above expectations for an increase of 226,000. The economy created 227,000 jobs in November, whose figure was upwardly revised from a previously reported 208,000.

Data also showed that the U.S. trade deficit narrowed to $39.00 billion in November from $42.25 billion in October, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of $43.40 billion. Analysts had expected the trade deficit to narrow to $42.00 billion in November.

The strong data added to expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in the coming year.

Meanwhile, the single currency remained under pressure after data showed that consumer prices in the euro area fell in December for the first time in more than five years

Eurostat reported that the annual rate of euro zone inflation fell by 0.2% in December, down from 0.3% in November. Economists had expected an annual decline of 0.1%. It was the first fall in the annual rate of inflation since October 2009.

Core inflation, which strips out volatile measures such as food and energy costs, rose 0.8% on a year-over-year basis, but was still well below the ECB's target of close to, but just under 2%.

The data added to expectations that the ECB could implement quantitative easing as soon as its next meeting on January 22. Late last week ECB President Mario Draghi said the risk of it not fulfilling its mandate of price stability is higher now than six months ago.

In a separate report Wednesday, Eurostat said the euro zone’s unemployment rate was unchanged at 11.5% in November for the sixth straight month, but the number of people without jobs rose for the third consecutive month, by 34,000 to 18.394 million.

The US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, eased 0.01% to 92.21.