FX Roundup: Greenback in marginal gains versus major crosses

Foreign exchange trading was largely mixed on Friday, as equity markets continued to struggle with the dollar emerging as the dominant cross in European trading.

At 1423 GMT, the greenback was up 0.40% against the yen changing hands at JPY118.14, as job growth in the US outstripped economists' forecasts.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, change in December non-farm payrolls rose 292,000 in December, higher than the median market expectation for an uptick in the region of 200,000.

Continuing with major crosses, the pound was down 0.32% against the greenback exchanging at $1.4571 continuing to lurk around 5-year lows for a second successive session. The euro also registered a 0.51% drop versus the US currency to change hands at $1.0876.

Meanwhile, commodity linked currency crosses also endured mixed fortunes as the weekend approached. The Australian dollar was down 0.30% against its US counterpart exchanging at US$0.6991, while the New Zealand dollar fell 0.78% changing hands at US$0.6575.

However, the greenback fell against the Canadian dollar exchanging at CAD$1.4093; a drop of 0.16%. Jane Foley, senior FX strategist at Rabobank, said, “Partly in reflection of the weakness of the CAD, the Bank of Canada is fairly optimistic about growth prospects this year, expecting it to accelerate to above potential.”

“If Canadian economic data does strengthen there is likely to be some covering of CAD short positions. This may lead to some improvement in the level of the CAD this year. We expect AUD/CAD to drop towards 0.90 on a 12 month view.”

Finally, Latin American currencies got temporary respite with the dollar also trading marginally lower against the Mexican peso changing hands at MXN17.8245, down 0.12%, along with declines of 0.69%, 0.05% and 0.52% against the Colombian peso, Chilean peso and Brazilian Real respectively.