Investing.com - The yen was slightly weaker in early trade on Monday in Asia with wages data in Japan below expectations but still marking a gain.
USD/JPY changed hands at 119.91, flat, while AUD/USD traded at 0.7071, up 0.33%.
In Japan average cash earnings for August rose 0.5%, a second straight rise, but below the gain of 0.7% expected.
The average wages are likely to rebound in the July-September quarter after dipping 0.7% on year in April-June, when the economy contracted on sluggish consumer spending and business investment amid a slow recovery in real wages, high import costs and uncertain global growth.
Earlier, the TD-MI September inflation gauge in Australia rose to a gain of 0.3% month-on-month, from a gain of 0.1% in August.
"Our tradable- and domestic-inflation gauges are converging toward an annual rate of 2% - phenomena that the RBA has already anticipated whereby the weaker Australian dollar may be boosting imported prices but benign domestic inflation provides an offset," TD Securities Asia-Pacific macro strategist Annette Beacher said.
In the week ahead, investors will be focusing on Wednesday’s minutes of the Fed’s September meeting, when the central bank decided to delay hiking rates.
Central bank meetings in Japan, Australia and the U.K. will also be closely watched.
On Monday, markets in China are to remain closed for a national holiday.
The U.K. is to release data on service sector activity.
In the euro zone, the eurogroup of finance ministers are to hold talks in Brussels.
The Institute of Supply Management is to release data on service sector activity.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.18% at 95.87.
Last week, the dollar turned lower against the other major currencies on Friday after a weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs report for September dampened expectations for a rate hike by the Federal Reserve this year.
The Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy added just 142,000 jobs last month, well below expectations of the 203,000 expected by economists.
August’s reading was revised down to 135,000, from the initial reported figure of 173,000.
Average hourly earnings were flat month-on-month and the labor force participation rate fell to just 62.4%, down from 62.6% in August. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.1%, in line with forecasts.
The report underlined fears that a slowdown in global economic growth has spread to the U.S. economy and prompted investors to push back expectations on the timing of an initial rate hike by the Federal Reserve to early 2016.
Higher U.S. interest rates would boost the dollar, making the currency more attractive to yield seeking investors.
The euro’s gains were held in check after data earlier in the week showing that the euro area fell back into negative inflation in September added to fears that the European Central Bank will step up its quantitative easing program.