FX roundup: Sterling, dollar barely moved

Sterling and the US dollar were barely moved on most major crosses as traders in the US took pause for Thanksgiving festivities, although the greenback's turns on Japan's yen and Turkey's lira were mild exceptions to the rule.

At about 17:05 GMT, sterling was up 0.03% to $1.2447 and down 0.03% to €1.1785. The dollar-spot index was down 0.03% to $101.670.

The British currency was a wafer lower on the Australian dollar, but rose a jot on the New Zealand dollar, South African rand and Japanese yen. It was flat versus the Canadian dollar.

"The afternoon has had a sense of children playing about without adult supervision, with this especially clear in currency markets," said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG.

"The dollar is quiet for now, but all that could change by next week," he added.

Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex, was already looking to tomorrow.

"Not only do the US markets return from their Thanksgiving break, but investors get an update on the state of the UK’s third quarter growth," Campbell said in a statement.

"Analysts are expecting the figure to remain at that better than expected 0.5%, though there will be plenty of hand-wringing before the reading is revealed."

Much like sterling, the greenback endured a session of malaise. It was down versus the euro, aussie and loonie and flat versus the kiwi, but up a snip on the rand.

The dollar gained 0.67% to 113.27 yen, which a point that FXTM research analyst Lukman Otunuga seized upon.

"The combination of dollar strength and yen weakness amid the Trump effect has sent the USDJPY gravity defying levels with prices hovering around 113.00 as of writing," Otunuga said.

"Dollar strength from the skyrocketing US rate hike expectations could be the engine which drives the USDJPY to levels not seen since February 2016 above 115.00," he added.

"A sharp breakout above 113.00 could spark a further incline towards 115.00 in the coming weeks."

Also in focus was Turkey's currency. At about 17:05 GMT, the dollar was up 1.48% to fetch 3.4455 Turkish lira.

This followed lawmakers in the European Parliament voting to adopt a non-binding motion to freeze Turkey's accession to the EU, after a government crackdown on dissent following the failed coup in the country earlier this year.

Meantime, Turkey's central bank hiked its main policy rates by more than was expected in a bid to defend its currency which was trading at multi-year lows versus the US dollar.

On the economic news front, the European Central Bank used its Financial Stability Review to warn on increasing political uncertainty.

Earlier today, German gross domestic product (GDP) slowed down in the third quarter, with only an acceleration in household consumption and higher government spend helping to offset the drag from falling exports and flat investment.

GDP expanded at a 0.2% quarter-on-quarter clip over the three months ending in September, according to the Ministry of Economics. That was in-line with economists' views.