(RTTNews) – The dollar was in a holding pattern versus other majors Friday morning in New York, firming up slightly versus the sterling while seeing virtually no movement against the euro and yen.
Its been a tough stretch for the dollar over the past week, as traders snapped up higher yielders like the loonie and sterling amid confidence that global equities will continue to advance. At the same time, the buck dropped to multi-month lows versus the yen as the economic outlook for Japan continued to improve.
On Friday, traders will focus on a report on housing starts and building permits slated to be released at 8:30 AM ET. Economists estimate housing starts of 530,000 for June.
The dollar was little-changed versus the euro in early dealing, staying near 1.4100 after hitting a 2-week low of 1.4150 on Thursday.
Eurozone recorded trade surplus for the second month in May, but the fall in imports and exports underlines the sluggish demand at home and abroad. The seasonally adjusted trade surplus was EUR 800 million in May, up from EUR 700 million in April, data released by the Eurostat showed Friday. The figure was in line with economists’ expectations.
Against the sterling, the dollar improved to 1.6293 after touching a 2-week low of 1.6479 earlier in week. With the advance, the dollar stayed away from a 7-month low of 1.6744 set back in June.
The dollar was range-bound near 93.65 against the yen, but remained withing hailing distance of Monday’s 5-month low of 91.74.
The dollar barely budged versus the loonie as Canadian consumer prices fell on-year as expected. The buck held near 1.1180, less than a penny from its monthly low of 1.1113 from earlier this week.
Canadian consumer prices fell 0.3% in June compared with June 2008, following a 0.1% increase in May, according to data released Friday by Statistics Canada. It was the first 12-month decline in the all-items Consumer Price Index (CPI) since November 1994.