Forex News

The US dollar ended the week as the weakest major currency after Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen made dovish comments, making speculators pare bets on an additional interest rate hike this year.

The Great Britain pound rallied to the highest level since September against the US dollar during the Friday’s trading session. The currency also logged solid gains against other most-traded rivals.

The US dollar today weakened against its main peers as key macro data released from the US docket disappointed. The US retail sales data, the CPI and the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index all missed their respective market consensus figures, which put the greenback under renewed selling pressure.

The EUR/USD currency pair today remained unchanged despite market rumors that the European Central Bank President, Mario Draghi, would include QE tapering in his Jackson Hole meeting next month. Janet Yellen‘s dovish comments during her two-day Humphrey-Hawkins testimony before Congress had a negative impact on the US dollar, which has been largely weaker against the euro in today’s session.

The Japanese yen was mixed against major rivals today, trading flat against the US dollar and the euro, falling versus the Great Britain pound, and rising against the Swiss franc. The yen was soft against higher-yielding currencies of emerging markets.

The Chinese yuan was flat versus the US dollar during the Friday’s calm trading session as traders were waiting for economic releases from the United States.

The Swiss franc started the current trading session rising but reversed its movement about the same time as the disappointing Producer and Import Price Index was released. The traders’ risk-positive mentality did not help the currency either.

The Australian dollar rallied today thanks to the positive general market sentiment and domestic macroeconomic data.

The US dollar fell versus its major peers (though not against the extremely weak euro) after Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen testified before the House Financial Services Committee today.

The Canadian dollar today rallied higher against the US dollar after the Bank of Canada hiked its overnight lending rate by 25 bps meeting market consensus. The weaker US dollar also contributed to the USD/CAD pair’s decline as markets reacted negatively to Janet Yellen‘s testimony before Congress.