FOREX-Dollar drifts as trade tensions simmer ahead of jobs data

By Kevin Buckland

TOKYO, June 4 (Reuters) - The dollar was little changed on Wednesday as investors looked ahead to U.S. employment data for immediate trading cues, while waiting on developments in President Donald Trump's tariff negotiations with key trading partners including China.

The Trump administration has given a Wednesday deadline for countries to submit their best offers on trade, the same day a doubling of duties to 50% on imported steel and aluminium came into effect.

Trump is also tipped by the White House to have a call this week with Chinese President Xi Jinping after the two sides accused each other of violating the terms of an agreement last month to roll back some tariffs.

In the meantime, economic indicators have returned as a driver of the U.S. currency this week, even if trade frictions remain centre stage. The dollar slumped 0.8% against major peers on Monday following a contraction in manufacturing, only to rebound by almost the same amount overnight after a surprise increase in U.S. job openings.

The dollar was up 0.2% at 144.23 yen JPY=EBS as of 0509 GMT, but was flat against most of its other rivals, including the euro, sterling and Swiss franc.

The euro EUR=EBS stood at $1.1370, sterling GBP=D3 at $1.3514 and the franc CHF=EBS at 0.8241 per greenback.

The dollar index =USD, which measures the currency against those four and two more peers, added 0.1% to 99.296.

Traders will have an eye on the ADP employment report later in the day, in the run-up to U.S. monthly payrolls figures on Friday.

"Job openings were much stronger than expected," Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst Joseph Capurso said of the overnight JOLTS data, which is closely watched by the Federal Reserve.

"The low estimate for ADP means the USD and U.S. bond yields have a small hurdle to climb for a positive surprise tonight."

Elsewhere, the Australian dollar AUD=D3 edged down 0.1% to $0.6457 following GDP figures that showed the economy barely grew in the first quarter, underlining the need for additional stimulus.

The Canadian dollar CAD=D3 was flat at C$1.3722 versus its U.S. peer, with the Bank of Canada seen likely to hold interest rates steady later in the day.

China's yuan was steady at 7.1915 per dollar in offshore trading CNH=D3.

South Korea's won KRW= strengthened about 0.2% to 1,374.535 per dollar after the victory of liberal candidate Lee Jae-myung in the country's presidential election.