• Fed’s Evans: Reasonable case can be made for deferring rate hikes until core inflation reaches the Fed’s 2% goal.
• Fed’s Evans: Sees two rate hikes by the end of 2016. – US Dollar May Rise as Jobs Report Boosts Fed Rate Hike Bets.
• China weakens the Yuan reference rate 0.16% to 6.5793 against the $USD from 6.5688 on Thursday.
• ECB’s Draghi: Additional stimulus expected from monetary policy, data point to ongoing growth in the second quarter. On June 8th to start corporate sector purchase program, June 22 start 1st targeted longer-term refinancing.
• Bloomberg reporting an article in Messaggero 3 June 2016 BOE, ECB planning liquidity guarantee and currency pact No further detail at present but an interesting, albeit sensible, plan/notion. Given the fact that both the pound and euro would get slapped hard in the event of Brexit it will be interesting to see just how they plan to effect the currency pact. Neither currency moving on the report so far but we’ll be watching out for any further detail. EURGBP 0.7736 with GBPUSD still holding 1.4400 and EURGBP pinned around 1.1150.
• U.S. stocks rebounded from an early slide Thursday, nudging the Standard & Poor’s 500 index and Nasdaq composite to their highest closes of the year. Healthcare companies led the comeback. Energy stocks declined the most after a meeting of OPEC ministers ended without an agreement on cutting production of crude oil. A late-afternoon reversal delivered the second gain in two days for the stock market in what has been a muted week of trading. Investors have been on the sidelines waiting for clues as to whether the Federal Reserve will raise its key interest rate at the central bank’s next meeting of policymakers this month.

Seven of the 10 sectors in the S&P 500 posted gains, led by healthcare companies. Health insurer Humana climbed the most in the index, advancing 5.6% to $187.36. Drugmaker Endo International rose 4.9% to $17.44. And Aetna climbed 4.1% to $120.03. Major stock indexes had been stuck in the red for much of the day as investors monitored the OPEC meeting in Vienna. Oil ministers ended the meeting without reaching a consensus on regulating supplies. That sent crude oil prices lower initially, but they later reversed course.

• US Nonfarm Employment Change measures the change in the number of newly employed people in the US, excluding workers in the farming industry. A reading which is higher than the market forecast is bullish for the dollar. In the Eurozone, weak inflation figures will likely mean looser monetary policy for longer, and a dovish message from Mario Draghi could send the euro lower. In the US, a June rate hike isn’t likely, but one in July is certainly an option. The monetary policy divergence play could continue this week. So, the overall sentiment is neutral on EUR/USD towards this release.