Forexpros –
Forexpros – The U.S. dollar moved higher against its major counterparts in U.S. trade Friday, as European inflation concerns and a downturn in global equities whetted investor appetites for the safe-haven greenback.
In afternoon U.S. trade, the greenback was higher against the euro, with EUR/USD falling 1.28% to hit 1.3424.
Earlier Friday, the European Union’s Statistics Office reported that euro-zone inflation jumped by 3% in September, up for 2.5% in August, the largest year on year increase since October of 2008.
The rise in prices quashed hopes that the European Central Bank would be lowering interest rates any time soon, complicating the ECB’s options for addressing the region’s debt concerns.
European stocks closed out the books on the third quarter with a down session for the last day of September; the STOXX 50 Index lost 1.48% to 2,179.66, France’s CAC 40 fell 1.50% to 2,981.96, Britain’s FTSE 100 shed 1.32% to 5,128.48, and Germany’s DAX declined 2.44% to close at 5,502.02.
German and French stock markets ended the quarter lower by 25%.
In late afternoon U.S. trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.78% to 11,067.29, the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.18% to 2,451.47, and the S&P 500 declined 1.04% to trade at 1,148.37.
Meanwhile, the greenback was up against the British pound, with GBP/USD slipping 0.05% to hit 1.5620.
The dollar was higher against both the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc with USD/JPY advancing 0.36% to hit 77.11, and USD/CHF higher by 0.98% to hit 0.9058.
The greenback was higher against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts with USD/CAD up 0.81% to hit 1.0443, AUD/USD lower by 0.90% to hit 0.9693, and NZD/USD falling 0.97% to hit 0.7633.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.80% at 79.12.
The U.S. Institute of Supply Management’s Manufacturing Purchasing Manager’s Index, an indication of general U.S. business conditions, was scheduled for release Monday.
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