Euro steady ahead of US jobs data

The euro was steady in early Asian trade Friday at the start of the Easter holiday weekend ahead of a US jobs report, after it lost ground on debt concerns over the past week.

The eurozone unit bought $1.3064 and 107.58 yen in Tokyo morning trade, compared with $1.3057 and 107.52 yen in New York late Thursday. The dollar was changing hands at 82.36 yen, from 81.84 yen.

"The pair of euro/dollar won't move much, but a clear break of technical support at 1.3050 could send the pair down to 1.3000," Osao Iizuka, a senior manager at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, told Dow Jones Newswires.

The euro fell overnight amid fresh sovereign-debt concerns in Spain, but Iizuka said the weakness "stems more from dollar buying".

Spain's borrowing costs soared Wednesday in its first debt auction since an austerity budget last week, fuelling concern among traders of a repeat of Greece's strife last year when it narrowly avoided a messy default.

Madrid is racing to slash its public deficit to reassure markets that it will not follow Greece -- as well as Ireland and Portugal -- in needing a bailout after it missed its deficit target last year.

Junya Tanase, chief forex strategist at JP Morgan in Tokyo, said dealers were awaiting a US jobs report later Friday with dollar/yen trade likely to move in a 81.00-83.00 range next week.

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