NEW YORK: Confidence returned to foreign exchange markets Friday after the turbulence from the European Central Bank meeting, with the safe-haven yen dropping and the Canadian and Australian currencies jumping on firming commodity prices.
The euro was slightly lower on the dollar at $1.1149 after huge swings on Thursday due to the mixed message that came with the ECB’s rate cuts.
But the yen lost 0.6 percent against the greenback and 0.2 percent against the euro.
The Australian and Canadian dollars finished the day at 1:1 parity with each other, both trading at 75.6 US cents.
Recovering commodity prices helped push the Australian unit up 0.7 percent in the day and Canada’s dollar up nearly 0.8 percent. The latter shrugged off a rise in the country’s unemployment rate to 7.3 percent.
Boris Schlossberg of BK Asset Management said that the bias on the euro is likely downward against the dollar as Thursday’s rally unwinds.
The euro will also be under pressure if the meeting of the Federal Reserve next week concludes Wednesday with indications that it will continue on its path toward tighter monetary policy, Schlossberg said.
2200 GMT Friday Thursday
EUR/USD 1.1149 1.1183
EUR/JPY 126.87 126.56
EUR/CHF 1.0958 1.1014
EUR/GBP 0.7753 0.7830
USD/JPY 113.79 113.17
USD/CHF 0.9829 0.9849
GBP/USD 1.4380 1.4284
