The Japanese yen has made some ground overnight in Asia, USD/JPY down at 95.20 from a North American close Thursday around 95.40, while EUR/JPY is down at 135.70 from around 136.30.

General risk sentiment will be getting a little jittery as forex traders keep a beady eye on falling Chinese stocks, the Shanghai exchange getting hit hard today, down around 3%. Obviously the release of poor US retail sales, jobless data Thursday will hardly have helped risk appetite.

A dip in US treasury yields will be weighing a little on USD/JPY, as will talk of Japanese repatriation of proceeds from redemption and coupon payments from US treasuries.

Not much in the way of European Economic data today, infact the cupboard is bear as regards numbers likely to impact forex trading.

06:45 GMT: French wages Q-2 ( prov) expected -0.90%

09:00 GMT: Euro zone CPI July expected -0.6% m/m, -0.6% y/y, core +1.4% y/y