Market News

By Brigid Riley

• Summary

• Dollar/yen briefly breaks below 151 as traders bet on more BOJ hikes
• Sterling licks wounds after Thursday's BOE meeting
• Other major currencies steady with focus on US payrolls report

TOKYO, Feb 7 (Reuters) - The yen climbed to a nine-week high on Friday as market players piled on bets for more interest rate hikes in Japan this year, while the U.S. dollar and other major currencies were little changed ahead of U.S. payroll figures later in the day.

After a volatile week punctuated by back-and-forth market-moving headlines on U.S. tariff threats, traders settled in for the jobs data while keeping a wary eye on geopolitics and U.S. President Donald Trump's broad policy moves.

The U.S. labour market has remained resilient, with the unemployment rate ticking down to 4.1% in December. Economists polled by Reuters expect the unemployment rate to have remained unchanged last month while projecting the economy added 170,000 jobs.

But analysts warn that January employment data may be difficult to interpret due to annual revisions, while wildfires in California and frigid temperatures in the United States are expected to have held back job growth.