USD/JPY clings to small gains near 109.60 as focus shift to US labour market data

• NFP growth in US is expected to ease following November's surge.
• US Dollar Index extends rally into fourth straight day on Friday.
• Wall Street looks to open in positive territory.

The USD/JPY pair, which started the week at 107.86, continues to inch higher on Friday as the upbeat sentiment and the broad USD strength allows the bullish momentum to remain intact. As of writing, the pair was up 0.1% on a daily basis at 109.62.

Global equity indexes rallied on Thursday and Wall Street's main indexes reached fresh record highs as the easing geopolitical tensions fueled a relief rally. European stocks are posting modest gains on Friday and the S&P 500 futures are up 0.25% to suggest that US stocks are likely to open in the positive territory.

USD looks to end the week on a strong note

On the other hand, the US Dollar Index is pushing higher for the fourth straight day ahead of December Nonfarm Payrolls data. At the moment, the index is up 0.17% on the day at 97.58.

Previewing the data, "on payrolls, the consensus is +167k, with the unemployment rate expected to remain at 3.5%, its joint lowest since 1969," said Deutsche Bank analysts. "This follows some fairly strong US employment data recently, with nonfarm payrolls growing by +266k in November, the most since January, while the 3-month moving average also rose above +200k for the first time since January. The full day by day week ahead is at the end.”

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Technical levels to watch for