Investing.com - The yen and Aussie weakened early in Asia on Monday as markets head into the final trading month of the year.
USD/JPY traded at 118.81, up 0.18%, while AUD/USD changed hands at 0.8478, down 0.27%.
China is to release official data on manufacturing activity in November that came in at 50.8 in October as well as the HSBC manufacturing index expected at 50.0.
In Australia comes the MI inflation gauge for November, which rose 0.2% on month in October and then third quarter inventories and the RBA commodity price index, which declined 16.9% in the previous month.
Earlier, Australia's November manufacturing index rose 0.7 points to 50.1, into expansion territory from 49.4.
Last week, oil prices tumbled following Thursday’s decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to keep production quotas unchanged, fuelling fears over a global supply glut.
In the euro zone, data on Friday showed that the annual rate of inflation slowed to a five year low of 0.3% in November. The weak data was seen as increasing the likelihood that the European Central Bank will implement quantitative easing measures.
Demand for the dollar continued to be underpinned by expectations that the Federal Reserve is moving closer to raising interest rates, as central banks in Japan and the euro zone are easing monetary policy to spur growth and stave off the threat of deflation.
In the week ahead investors will be focusing on the outcome of a policy meeting of the ECB on Thursday, which is to be followed by the U.S. jobs report for November on Friday. Central banks in the U.K., Canada and Australia are also to hold policy setting meetings next week.
On Monday, the U.K. is to publish its manufacturing index as well as data on net lending to individuals.
In the U.S., the Institute of Supply Management is to release data on manufacturing activity.