At the end of the week, the yen is on track for a weekly decline, while the South African rand is heading for a 2% weekly gain. For its part, the Chinese yuan remains stable and the American and Australian dollars are up.

The yen rose slightly against the dollar on Friday but is poised for its biggest weekly drop since June, after a series of US economic data dampened fears of a recession. and supported the bets of a gradual easing of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy

The South African rand was slightly stronger at the start of trading on Friday and headed for gains of around 2% this week as positive US economic data allayed fears of an impending recession in the the world's largest economy. At 705 GMT, the rand traded at 17.97 against the US dollar, up about 0.2% from Thursday's closing level

The Chinese yuan stabilized against the dollar on Friday after falling overnight, as the greenback benefitted from easing recession fears thanks to a series of solid American economic data. The yuan spot opened at 7.1793 per dollar and was last trading 4 pips firmer than the previous session's close at 7.1750 at 03:26 GMT and 0.4% weaker than the

The dollar hovered near a two-week high against the yen, following its biggest rise in a day against its main competitors in four weeks, as solid U.S. economic data virtually eliminated fears of a recession. The greenback was particularly strong against the Japanese currency thanks to higher Treasury yields as traders reduced their bets that the Federal Reserve would be forced to aggressively ease next month. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers including the yen, sterling and the euro, was little changed at 103.20 after rising 0.41 percent overnight, the strongest rebound since

The Australian dollar is expected to see a strong weekly rise on Friday, supported by aggressive expectations about domestic interest rates, while the kiwi ended the week barely rising as markets bet on a series of rate cuts over the coming months.