Sterling rises, euro down in Asia

Sterling rose while the euro edged down on Friday, as traders waited to see if British Prime Minister Theresa May has finally clinched an elusive deal with Irish and EU officials on how they would run their post-Brexit Irish land border. The US dollar was higher against a basket of currencies, on track for a weekly gain, as the passage of a bill to temporarily extend US government funding raised investors' optimism that a tax reform bill would also pass.
The leader of the Northern Irish party which props up May's government negotiated through the early hours about the post-Brexit Irish land border, a source in the party told Reuters on Friday. An agreement would remove the last obstacle for opening free-trade talks with the European Union. May is likely to meet European Union chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker before dawn (0600 GMT) in Brussels.
The euro inched down 0.1 percent to $1.1761, around its lowest levels since November 22. It was on track to shed 1.1 percent for the week, but is still up nearly 12 percent so far in 2017. Sterling was up 0.3 percent at $1.3512, pulling away from its overnight low of $1.3320.
Forex traders were also awaiting the closely watched US non-farm payrolls report later in the day, which is expected to show 200,000 new jobs were created in November, according to a Reuters poll. The dollar index, which gauges the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was slightly higher on the day at 93.830, up 1 percent for the week. But it was still down 8.2 percent for the year, a period plagued by US policy uncertainty.
Removing one major stumbling block for the dollar, the US Congress on Thursday passed legislation to temporarily fund the government through December 22, beating a Friday midnight deadline. The bill will be sent to President Donald Trump to sign. The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week to 236,000, data showed on Thursday.
Fed funds futures prices show that investors expect the US central bank to hike rates at its December 12-13 meeting, with investors now focused on how many more hikes to expect in 2018. "Speculators may think today is a good day to have dollar long positions, and buy the dollar on dips, ahead of the US employment data, and with the Fed expected to hike next week," said Masashi Murata, senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman.
Against its Japanese counterpart, the dollar was 0.3 percent higher at 113.38 yen, trading at its highest levels since mid-November and up 1 percent for the week. It was still down 3.2 percent for the year. Investors had a muted reaction to upbeat Japanese economic readings on Friday, including revised data that showed the economy grew an annualised 2.5 percent, twice as fast as originally estimated in the third quarter, thanks to big gains in capital expenditure.
But regional sentiment got a lift from stronger-than-expected Chinese trade data showing exports surged 12.3 percent in November from a year earlier, more than double the forecast, while imports climbed almost 18 percent. Bitcoin was down 9.8 percent on the Bitstamp exchange at $14,965.00, after notching a record high of $16,666.66.