The U.S. central bank would be in a position to start reducing its $120 billion in monthly asset purchases if a report due out next Friday shows that employers added at least 850,000 jobs during August, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said on Friday.

"If we were to hit that I would say we're ready to go early this fall," Waller told Yahoo Finance in an interview, adding that he does not expect the surge in the Delta variant of the coronavirus to slow progress materially. "The economy doesn't necessarily follow the virus that closely." (Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Leslie Adler)