· The dollar held near a two-week high on Friday, as demand for safe-haven assets rose on uncertainties about the path of U.S.-China trade negotiations and broader worries about slowing global growth.
The dollar held near a two-week high on Friday, as demand for safe-haven assets rose on uncertainties about the path of U.S.-China trade negotiations and broader worries about slowing global growth.
Such concerns were brought to the fore on Thursday after the European Commission sharply cut its forecasts for euro zone economic growth this year and next on expectations the bloc's largest countries will be held back by global trade tensions and domestic challenges.
Investors' anxieties about the global economy were also compounded by comments from U.S. President Donald Trump, who said he did not plan to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping before a March 1 deadline to achieve a trade deal.
· "The dollar is being supported by worries over global growth and external factors," said Sim Moh Siong, currency strategist at Bank of Singapore.
"Markets are waiting to see what policy measures can stabilise growth worldwide...until then, it's hard to see the dollar weakening."
The dollar index, a gauge of its value versus six major peers was up by around 0.1 percent at 96.59, sitting just shy of its two-week high.
The euro was marginally lower at $1.1338, on track to post its fifth straight day of losses. The single currency has been stumbling due to weaker-than-expected growth data out of the euro zone and expectations that the European Central Bank will keep monetary policy accommodative this year.
· Philip Wee, currency strategist at DBS, thinks it is likely the euro will depreciate below $1.10 this year on Europe's relatively weaker growth and inflation outlook against that of the United States.
· President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order next week that would ban Chinese telecommunication equipment from U.S. wireless networks, Politico reported late Thursday, citing three sources.
Those sources said the Trump administration plans to release the directive before a major industry conference, MWC Barcelona, which starts on Feb. 25, to signal the importance of cybersecurity in future high-end technology contracts.
· Sterling is trading little changed at around mid 1.2900 before the UK Prime Minister Theresa May reaches Dublin to meet her Irish counterpart and discuss the problematic border plan. with no concrete expectations set for the meeting.
The 4 hours chart shows that the pair quickly recovered above its 200 EMA, although it has already tested levels below it. A bearish 20SMA keeps capping the upside, while technical indicators have recovered from oversold levels, now losing upward strength within negative levels, indicating that the risk of an upward extension remains limited. The pair would need to surpass the 1.3040 resistance to be able to extend its gains toward the 1.3100 price zone, yet as long as Brexit uncertainty prevails, the most likely scenario is sellers taking their chances on spikes above 1.3000.
Support levels: 1.2925 1.2880 1.2835
Resistance levels: 1.2995 1.3040 1.3090
· The volume of Germany’s foreign trade hit a record in 2018, the Federal Statistics Office said, underlining how exposed Europe’s largest economy is to a global trading system that is under threat from protectionism and the threat of a trade war.
The annual figures — showing that Germany had exported 1.3 trillion euros’ worth of goods and imported 1.1 trillion euros — exceeded the previous record set in 2017. The trade surplus for the year narrowed slightly.
· Thailand on Friday launched a Huawei Technologies 5G test bed, even as the United States urges its allies to bar the Chinese telecoms giant from building next-generation mobile networks.
· Japan’s household spending rose slightly and higher bonus payments lifted wages in December, though the underlying trends in these two gauges showed only modest improvement and pointed to a difficult year for the economy as risks to growth increases.
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