Dollar falls but still on track for weekly gain By Investing.com

Investing.com – The U.S. dollar traded slightly lower on Friday but remained on track for weekly gains as traders reassessed possible rate cuts by the Federal Reserve on the back of strong payrolls numbers.

At 04:30 ET (0830 GMT), the dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, traded 0.2 percent lower at 102.594.

For the week, the index is on track for a 0.4% advance, building on the previous week’s more than 2% gain.

PPI data to follow

The dollar has been in demand since last week’s strong report, with traders largely ruling out the chance of another significant interest rate cut at its next meeting.

While Thursday’s rise raised some doubts about the health of the labor market, the rise reminded traders that inflation could still be an issue.

data is available later in the session and is likely to show minor gains, but there is a degree of uncertainty following slightly stronger-than-expected consumer inflation since September.

For now, bets on a quarter-point Fed rate cut on Nov. 7 rose to 83.3 percent from 80.3 percent a day earlier, with the odds for policy remaining steady, according to CME Group (NASDAQ:) .

The British economy is returning to growth

In Europe, it rose 0.1 percent to 1.3068 after data showed Britain’s economy returned to growth in August after two straight months of no growth.

rose 0.2% month-on-month in August, largely in line with expectations, and rose 1.0% from a year ago.

The UK economy now looks on track for a third consecutive quarter of growth. The ONS said September’s GDP data would need to show a monthly fall of 0.3% to 0.6% to deliver a flat quarterly reading, assuming no revisions to existing figures.

traded 0.1 percent higher to 1.0944 after falling 1.8 percent in September, the federal statistics office said Friday, confirming preliminary data.

With inflation in the eurozone’s biggest economy now below the European Central Bank’s target and growth stagnant, the ECB is expected to ease policy once again next week, having already cut interest rates twice this year year.

“While the case against cutting interest rates should not be dismissed entirely, it would now take a lot of courage from the ECB to hold back, given that markets and consensus are fully aligned for a 25bp cut,” the analysts said from ING, in a note.

Yuan wins before the briefing

fell 0.1% to 148.75 after approaching 150 yen earlier in the week, a level not seen since Aug. 2.

fell 0.2 percent to 7.0672 and the yuan gained slightly ahead of an upcoming finance ministry conference where the government said it would outline fiscal stimulus plans.

Analysts expect Beijing to provide at least 2 trillion yuan ($283 billion) in fiscal support, with most of the amount intended to support private consumption.