• The dollar rose to three-week highs on Friday after an influential Federal Reserve official said the U.S. central bank's plan to shrink its bond portfolio this year would not significantly delay its interest rate-hiking cycle.
The greenback initially sold off on a softer-than-expected U.S. jobs report for March, but rebounded as analysts noted the apparent weakness was caused by snowstorms.
The dollar index rose to three-week peaks of 101.26 .DXY and last traded a up 0.5 percent at 101.16.
The dollar touched session highs against the Japanese yen following Dudley's comments, and was last up0.3 percent at 111.16 JPY=
The greenback hit a four-week high versus the euro, which fell 0.5 percent to $1.0587 EUR=.
• Speculators further reduced bullish bets on the U.S. dollar, pushing net longs to their lowest level since late February, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday and calculations by Reuters.
The value of the dollar's net long position totaled $14.67 billion in the week ended April 4, down from$15.27 billion the previous week. Investors have reduced long dollar bets for a second straight week and Friday's net long dollar positioning was a five-week low.
It has been an uncertain few weeks for the U.S. dollar, starting when President Donald Trump's fellow Republicans pulled their bill to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system due to a shortage of votes.
• U.S. employers added about 98,000 jobs in March, the fewest since last May and well below economists' expectation of 180,000, as bad weather hit construction hiring. However, wage growth edged up and unemployment fell.
• New York Fed President William Dudley on Friday shed more light on the U.S. central bank's developing plan for when to stop replacing bonds that expire in its portfolio, how to execute it, and how far it would ultimately shrink its balance sheet.
U.S. Treasury yields rose after Dudley's remarks, which helped push equities lower, according to Paul Zemsky, chief investment officer, Multi-Asset Strategies and Solutions, at Voya Investment Management in New York.
• Wall Street's top banks see the Federal Reserve laying out by year end its plan to scale back reinvestments in Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities in order to begin shrinking its $4.5 trillion balance sheet, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.
The median view of 11 dealers was for the Fed to eventually shrink its balance sheet to $2.75 trillion. As the U.S. central bank seems prepared to tackle unwinding its bond holdings, primary dealers see the Fed raising interest rates two more times by year end and three times in 2018.
• Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda on Monday reiterated the central bank's resolve to maintain its massive monetary stimulus until inflation is stably above its 2 percent target.
• U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Friday told reporters that he plans to announce additional economic sanctions aimed at Syria in the near future, part of the U.S. response to a poison gas attack that Western countries say was carried out by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
• Islamic State militants launched two suicide attacks on U.S.-backed Syrian rebels near the border with Iraq, leaving at least 12 dead in the fighting and many wounded, rebel sources said on Sunday.
• Brent crude futures settled up 35 cents at $55.24. Brent reached a session high of $56.08, the highest since March 7, shortly after the U.S. missile strike was announced. For the week, Brent was up 4.4 percent.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 54 cents at $52.24 a barrel, off the session high of $52.94.
Reference: Reuters,CNBC
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