The Rupee opened stronger on Thursday, aided by a further drop in oil prices, though traders ?expect the relief to be short-lived amid weakness in Asian peers ?and higher U.S. yields. Market participants had expected the ?Reserve Bank of India to defend that zone, citing evidence from recent ?sessions that suggested the central bank had been intervening to protect the 95 ?level. While the RBI was seen selling dollars around 94.75 on Wednesday, once it stepped back, a wave of stop-loss orders, coupled with weak cues from Asian markets, accelerated the ?rupee's decline. The drop in oil prices, triggered by the U.S.-Iran peace deal, showed no signs of abating. Brent crude ?fell 1% on Wednesday ?and dropped a ?further 1% in Asian trading, slipping below $71 a barrel. The drop came amid remarks from Qatar that Iran and the ?United States had made "positive progress" in indirect talks concluded ?on Wednesday, ?with discussions centred on the Strait of Hormuz. The dollar held steady on Thursday as markets awaited key ?U.S. non-farm payrolls data, while the yen's slide to 40-year lows against the greenback and thin trading ?ahead of a U.S. holiday kept traders on high alert for intervention. The dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, eased 0.02% to 101.38. Thursday's data is expected to show U.S. employers added 110,000 jobs in June, with ?the unemployment rate holding steady at 4.3%, according to the median estimate of economists polled by Reuters. The ?dollar has been underpinned by rising expectations of Fed rate hikes this year. A resilient labour market has also bolstered the outlook for U.S. growth, after job gains exceeded expectations for the past three months. That has added to other sources of dollar support, including the rapid ?adoption of AI, which has helped draw capital into U.S. assets. The euro traded at $1.138 against the U.S. dollar while sterling ?edged 0.06% higher to $1.3279. The Japanese yen has been one of the biggest casualties of the dollar's strength, putting ?Japan's Ministry ?of Finance in a difficult position over whether to intervene to support the currency. Overnight, the yen sank to 162.84 yen against the dollar, hitting a 40-year low and well above levels that prompted Japanese authorities to intervene a few weeks ago. In early trading, it was little changed at 162.50 per dollar. The Australian dollar lost 0.09% versus the greenback to $0.6885, while New Zealand's ?kiwi traded at $0.5672. Oil prices dropped about 1% on Thursday, down for a third consecutive day, after Qatar said Iran and the ?U.S. had made progress in indirect talks focused on the Strait of ?Hormuz, which handled one-fifth of global oil supply before the war. Brent futures lost ?77 cents or 1.1% to $70.80 a barrel by 0256 GMT, while U.S. ?West Texas Intermediate crude fell 84 cents or 1.2% to $67.74 a barrel.......