By Alex Ho
Investing.com - The U.S. dollar steadied on Thursday in Asia following the release of firmer services and private labor market data.
The U.S. Dollar Index Futures last traded at 98.185 by 12:40 AM ET (04:40 GMT), up 0.03%.
Overnight, ISM non-manufacturing data for January showed an uptick to 55.5, beating expectations of 55.
On the labor market front, private payrolls grew by 291,000 last month, a sharp increase from the 199,000 in December, according to a report released Wednesday by ADP and Moody's Analytics. That beat the economists' forecast of 156,000.
The U.S. employment report for January is set for release on Friday.
Meanwhile, the AUD/USD pair gained 0.2% to 0.6758 even afterPrime Minister Scott Morrison said the impact of the virus on Australia’s economy is likely to be “significant.”
"We need to be clear about the full extent of the virus and how much further it will spread, the success of containment measures in other jurisdictions, that is not known and that's why I think a scenario analysis is really important," Morrison said. "And that's being done now."
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg echoed his comments and said the coronavirus outbreak will have a “significant” impact on Australia’s economy due to the nation’s deep ties with China, though it was too soon to quantify the expected hit.
“The Chinese economy today is four time bigger than it was back in 2003 and our relationship is much stronger than it was back then with tourists increasing by sevenfold and students doubling,” he told ABC Radio on Thursday. “We don’t know how severe or how sustained the virus outbreak will be.”
The EUR/USD pair was unchanged at 1.0997.German factory orders for December are due Thursday, followed by industrial production on Friday.
The USD/JPY pair rose 0.2% to 109.95.