The US Dollar seems to have found its footing late Thursday following a pullback witnessed in Wall Street's main indexes, Early Friday, the US Dollar Index stays relatively quiet ahead of February Durable Goods Orders and S&P Global's preliminary Manufacturing and Services PMI surveys for March. S&P Global will also release the PMI surveys for Germany, the UK and the Eurozone on Friday. Canadian economic docket will feature Retail Sales for January.
Following the sharp decline witnessed on Wednesday, the benchmark 10-year US Treasury bond yield fluctuated below 3.5% on Thursday and closed the day virtually unchanged. Early Friday, the 10-year yield edges lower toward 3.4%. Durable Goods Orders in the US are forecast to rise by 0.6% in February following January's 4.5% decrease.
During the Asian trading hours, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Commerce spokesperson said China does not seek to engineer a trade surplus with the US. Meanwhile, Reuters reported that the Beijing office of Mintz Group, a US corporate due diligence firm, was raided by authorities and five Chinese staff were detained. Nevertheless, US stock index futures trade modestly higher on the day.
The data from Japan showed early Friday that the National Consumer Price Index declined to 3.3% on a yearly basis in February from 4.3% in January. This reading came in much lower than the market expectation of 4.1%. USD/JPY, however, is having a difficult time gathering bullish momentum and was last seen trading in negative territory at around 130.50.
GBP/USD fluctuates below 1.2300 in the European morning. The UK's Office for National Statistics reported on Friday that Retail Sales in February rose by 1.2%, compared to the market expectation for an increase of 0.2%, but failed to provide a boost to Pound Sterling. On Thursday, the Bank of England (BOE) announced that it raised its policy rate by 25 basis points to 4.25%.
After having reached its highest level since early February above 1.0900 on Thursday, EUR/USD reversed its direction and ended up closing the day in the red below 1.0850. The pair stays relatively quiet at around 1.0830 early Friday. The PMI surveys from the Euro area are expected to point to a modest expansion in the private sector's business activity in early March.
AUD/USD moves up and down in a tight channel below 0.6700 on Friday. The data from Australia revealed that S&P Global Composite PMI declined to 48.1% in early March from 50.6 in February.
For the second time this week on Thursday, Gold price climbed above $2,000. XAU/USD seems to have gone into a consolidation phase on Friday and was last seen trading modestly lower on the day at around $1,890.
Bitcoin gained nearly 4% on Thursday and erased all of Wednesday's gains. BTC/USD was last seen moving sideways near $28,300. Ethereum rose 4.5% on Thursday and reclaimed $1,800 before stabilizing slightly above that level early Friday.
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