/ The dollar fell against a basket of peers on Friday, retreating from a 13-month high hit earlier this week, on lower demand for the safe-haven greenback and some profit-taking, as worries about trade tensions between Washington and Beijing eased.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, was down 0.56 percent at 96.107, on pace for its worst daily decline in nearly a month.
The euro rebounded from a more than 13-month low touched earlier this week and was 0.59 percent higher at $1.1442.
• “You had the dollar bought aggressively over the past few months when investors were risk-averse and were seeking safety in the greenback,” said Kathy Lien, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asset Management in New York.
• “Investors are covering shorts into the last two weeks of summer and unwinding positions,” she said.
• Escalating tensions on trade between the United States and some of its largest trading partners had driven traders to sell emerging market currencies and take to the safety of the U.S. currency.
Next week’s lower-level trade talks between China and the United States offer some hope of easing some of those tensions.
• U.S. consumer sentiment fell to an 11-month low in early August, with households expressing concerns about the rising cost of living, potentially signaling a slowdown in consumer spending.
The University of Michigan on Friday said its consumer sentiment index fell to a reading of 95.3 early this month, the weakest since September2017, from 97.9 in July. The survey’s current conditions sub-index of consumer expectations dropped to 107.8 from July’s reading of 114.4.
• Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to visit Pyongyang next month at the invitation of North Korea leader Kim Jong Un to attend the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of North Korea’s founding, Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper reported.
• Qatar and Turkey’s central banks have signed a currency swap agreement to provide liquidity and support for financial stability, Qatar’s central bank said on Sunday, days after Turkey’s Gulf ally pledged $15 billion in support.
• Turkey’s currency crisis poses an additional risk to Germany’s economy on top of trade frictions with the United States and the possibility of Britain leaving the European Union without a deal, the German finance ministry said on Monday.
The Turkish lira has lost nearly 40 percent of its value against the dollar this year, hit by a worsening diplomatic rift with the United States and by investor alarm about President Tayyip Erdogan’s influence over monetary policy.
Germany is the second biggest foreign investor in Turkey, whose biggest trading partner is the European Union.
• Crude prices rose on Friday, but declined on the week on worries that oversupply would weigh on the U.S. market while trade disputes and slowing global economic growth would dampen demand for oil.
U.S. crude declined for the seventh consecutive week, and global benchmark Brent was dropped for a third week.
Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 settled up 40 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $71.83 a barrel, after touching a high of $72.49 earlier in the session.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI)CLc1 rose 45 cents , or 0.7 percent, to $65.91, after touching a session high of $66.39.
For the week, Brent was down 1.4 percent, and U.S. crude fell 2.6 percent.
• “One of the biggest concerns out there is that China’s demand numbers are coming down if China’s GDP growth is slowing,” said Tariq Zahir, managing member at Tyche Capital in New York.
Reference: Reuters
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