• Nonfarm payrolls probably increased by 190,000 jobs last month, according to a Reuters survey of economists, in part as unseasonably mild weather buoyed employment in the construction sector. The economy created 227,000 jobs in January.
The economy needs to create roughly 100,000 jobs per month to keep up with growth in the working-age population.
• China will not devalue its currency to stimulate exports, a deputy governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said.
"China will definitely not devalue the yuan to stimulate exports, it will definitely not engage in a currency war. This is because China is a responsible major economy," Yi Gang told China's Economic Daily newspaper on Friday.
• The Bank of Japan will leave policy unchanged at its board meeting next week, according to a survey of economists by Bloomberg.
None of the 41 economists forecast the central bank will increase stimulus next week, and none forecast any changes to its interest-rate targets or bond buying. Thirty-eight said the BOJ was finished adding stimulus during Kuroda’s term, which ends in April 2018.
Twenty-five of 40 analysts said the bank will either cut its annual target for bond purchases or stop restating the target altogether by the end of Kuroda’s term. The most common view was a reduction to 70 trillion yen a year, which was forecast by 10 people.
• Crude prices inched up on Friday after dropping to their lowest in more than three months the session before, pressured by concerns that a global supply glut is proving stubbornly persistent.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) was up 17 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $49.45 a barrel at 0746 GMT. It fell below $50 on Thursday for the first since mid-December, when OPEC and other producers agreed to cut output.
Brent crude was up 12 cents, or 0.2 percent, at $52.31 a barrel, having settled down 1.7 percent in the previous session and slumping 5 percent the day before in its biggest percentage decline in a year.
Reference: Reuters, Bloomberg
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