Following Thursday’s decline, the US dollar gathered strength against its rivals early Friday as markets assess the latest headlines surrounding the US-China trade relations.
Statistics Canada will release Retail Sales data for February later in the day and the University of Michigan will publish revisions to the Consumer Sentiment Index for April.
After losing 0.5% on Thursday, the DXY Dollar Index edged higher toward 100.00 in the European session on Friday.
US President Donald Trump confirmed late Thursday that a meeting with Chinese officials took place earlier in the day. Additionally, Bloomberg reported, China is mulling suspending its 125% tariff on some US imports including medical equipment, ethane, while discussing waiving the tariff for plane leases.
US stock index futures rose between 0.1% and 0.5% in Europe early Friday after Wall Street’s main indexes registered strong gains on Thursday.
Following the Politburo meeting held early Friday, China noted that it will cut the Reserve Requirement Ratio (RRR) and interest rates in a timely manner.
In the meantime, People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Pan Gongsheng said that they will implement a moderate and loose monetary policy to promote the development of the Chinese economy.
After rising about 0.8% on Thursday, AUDUSD is in a consolidation phase at around 0.6400.
Bloomberg News reported on Thursday that the European Central Bank is preparing to revise its monetary-policy framework to allow for more agile responses to price shocks amid mounting global volatility.
EURUSD struggles to keep its footing and trades in negative territory at around 1.1350.
The UK’s Office for National Statistics announced on Friday that Retail Sales rose by 0.4% on a monthly basis in March. This followed the 0.7% increase in February and came in much better than the market expectation for a decrease of 0.4%.
GBPUSD largely ignored these numbers and was last seen losing more than 0.2% on the day at around 1.3300.
USDJPY gained more than 0.6% on the day and traded at its highest level in ten days near 143.50 in the European morning.
Bank of Japan (BoJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda reiterated on Thursday that the Japanese central bank will continue to raise interest rates if underlying inflation converges toward its 2% inflation target as projected.
Following a sharp two-day decline, Gold staged a rebound and gained nearly 2% on Thursday.
Improving risk mood, however, caused XAUUSD to turn south once again on the last trading day of the week, testing $3,300, down more than 1% on the day.
(Source: OANDA)
