Most Asian currencies traded in a narrow range on Friday as excitement over the signing of the Sino-US trade deal faded, while China's yuan hit a six-month high after data showed resilience in the country's economy.
The sealing of the Phase 1 deal on Wednesday has helped defuse the 18-month trade row but traders are cautious as a number of thorny issues still remain unresolved.
"The Asian currencies are in a holding pattern because some of the excitement over the trade deal has cooled off and nothing is expected on the trade front for the time being," said Sim Moh Siong, forex strategist at Bank of Singapore.
Meanwhile, the yuan is set for its biggest weekly gain since early October after data showed China's economy grew 6% in the fourth quarter, in line with expectations and unchanged from the previous quarter's pace of growth.
There was surprising acceleration in China's December factory output and investment growth, while retail sales grew at a steady pace.
However, the positive China data did not make an impact on other major regional units as they weakened slightly on a stronger dollar.
The greenback scaled an eight-month high against the yen on upbeat US retail sales and jobs data.
"The US data overnight has been quite impressive, which suggests that the outlook for the rest of the world seems to be brighter and the US outlook is not lying behind," Bank of Singapore's Siong said.
The Thai baht and the Indonesian rupiah lost about 0.2% each, while the Indian rupee and the Philippine peso weakened slightly.
Movements in the Malaysian ringgit, the Taiwan dollar and the Singapore dollar were relatively limited.
The Korean won strengthened as much as 0.4% after Bank of Korea kept its benchmark rate steady and struck an upbeat tone, citing signs of an improving trade environment and a resilient domestic backdrop.
The Bank of Korea's policy board voted 5-2 to keep the base rate steady at 1.25%, as predicted by all 33 analysts surveyed by Reuters, standing pat for a second meeting following two reductions in July and October last year.
The trade-sensitive won is set to appreciate 0.2% for the week, its second successive weekly gain.
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