00:30 Australia Home Loans January -1.5% +0.6% -1.5%

The yen climbed against most major peers as a lack of unity among Japanese lawmakers for the government’s picks to run the Bank of Japan damped expectations for accelerated monetary easing.

Bullish bets on the yen in the options market climbed to a nine-month high after Japan’s largest opposition party said it would vote against BOJ deputy governor nominee Kikuo Iwata, an advocate of quantitative easing since the 1990s.  The Democratic Party of Japan yesterday said it opposed Iwata because he advocates changing the central bank law to give the government more control in setting policy.

Demand for the dollar was supported before U.S. data today that may show retail sales rose for a fourth month. The Commerce Department will probably say today that U.S. retail sales increased 0.5 percent in February from a month earlier when it rose 0.1 percent, according to a Bloomberg News survey of economists. The American unemployment rate dropped in February to the lowest since December 2008, government data showed last week.

New Zealand’s dollar dropped against all its major peers on speculation the nation’s worsening drought will weigh on the economy, backing the case for the central bank to keep interest rates at a record low. The so-called kiwi touched its weakest level in six weeks against Australia’s dollar after a private report showed consumer confidence in the larger nation rose to a more than two-year high, while official data from New Zealand showed food prices declined last month. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand will hold a meeting on monetary policy tomorrow.

EUR / USD: during the Asian session, the pair rose to $ 1.3040.

GBP / USD: during the Asian session, the pair climbed to $ 1.4950.

USD / JPY: during the Asian session the pair fell to Y95.60.