ForexLive Asia Wrap: Marking time ahead of the ECB today

 GBP Traders heads up: Mark Carney facing a three-hour Q&A from MPs in front of a Treasury Committee on Thursday at 0945GMT New Zealand's unemployment rate dropped to 6.9%; economists had expected the rate to come in at 7.1%. New Zealand's Q/Q employment dropped 1.0% versus expectations of a 0.4% increase. Australia AIG Construction Index fell further to 36.2 (prior was 38.8) Japan December Core Machine Orders +2.8% M/M (vs. expected at -0.8%), This is the 3rd consecutive M/M rise Australian January employment report showed 10,400 jobs were created beating expectations of 5,000 (Full time jobs dropped 9,800). The Participation rate increased to 65.0% basically inline with expectations of 65.1%. Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.4% beating expectations of  a rise to 5.5%. NAB Quarterly Business Confidence came in at -5 vs. expectations at -4 Ireland liquidates Anglo Irish Bank, over to the ECB now Abe and Shirakawa spoke before a Diet Budget Committee, nothing much new from the comments reported: Abe: Will propose all three BOJ nominees at the same time Comments also reported from Japanese Finance Minister Aso: Monetary easing is to escape deflation A relatively quiet day in the currencies ahead of the ECB meeting in Europe today (and the Bank of England in London). AUD/USD retested beneath 1.0300 after the jobs data but again found buyers. The bounce was very limited, though, 1.0315/20 as I write this report. Even the Yen was staid, 93.30/60 the range.