The yen was steady at 106.14 per dollar on Friday. Goldman Sachs analysts noted that pension fund flows out of Japan had offset a safety bid as U.S. stocks tumbled down.
On the other hand, the Australian dollar increased by 0.3%, heading toward a flat finish for the week at $0.7275. The New Zealand dollar also edged up by 0.1% to $0.6660. Bond inflows have not been enough to save the kiwi from a nearly 1% dip this week.
The U.S. dollar was ready for its first back-to-back weekly gains since May on Friday. Investors stuck to safer assets due to jitters in equity markets. After a volatile New York session, the dollar was broadly steady in Asia.
Rodrigo Catril, National Australia Bank senior currency strategist in Sydney, stated that traders frazzled by a turbulent week look ahead at risks ranging from next week’s Fed meeting to U.S. politics and Brexit.
He thinks that it’s not easy to see the equity market continue to perform in this sort of environment of uncertainty. A period of turbulence seems more likely, but in that scenario, the greenback tends to find support or at least struggles to weaken. For now, markets are looking out for U.S. consumer price data for an insight into the recovery.
The dollar was slightly lower against a basket of currencies in Asian trade. Still, it has now recovered about 1.7% from a 28-month low record hit early in September. ANZ analysts noted that the greenback looks delicately poised after bouncing from recent lows.
How did the European currencies fare?
The euro whipsawed on Friday. It jumped by 1% to $1.1917 after European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde declared that the bank does not target the exchange rate. But then the common currency tumbled down back to around $1.1830 as a U.S. equities’ fall lifted the dollar.
Meanwhile, the Sterling plummeted down to a six-week low of $1.2773 on Friday, the last trading at $1.2812. It has lost 3.5% on the greenback this week and approximately as much against the euro to sit at 92.32 pence.
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