The dollar retreated from this year’s high after the U.S. released soft CPI data, but rose slightly against the other major currencies on Friday in Asia as sentiment picked up as investors trimmed expectations for four rate hikes after the slower-than-expected inflation report showed prices pressures remained weak.
The U.S. dollar index that tracks the greenback against a basket of six major currencies last stood at 92.59, up 0.01% at 11:10AM ET (03:10 GMT).
The greenback reached this year’s new high on Wednesday at 93.22, then continued to slip back on Friday to trade below the 93 level. Its uptrend since mid-April is still intact, however.
The U.S. Labor Department said on Thursday its consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.2% last month missing expectations for a 0.3% rise. While year-on-year the CPI rose 2.1% in April, also missed economists’ forecast.
The CPI measures the change in the price of goods and services from the perspective of the consumer. It is a key way to measure changes in purchasing trends and inflation. The data showed further evidence of a slowdown in inflation and signaled a lower outlook for Federal Reserve to add another rate hike in the future.
The USD/JPY pair added 0.07% at 109.47. Japan saw a light week of data this week but will release its GDP figures next Wednesday.
In China, the People’s Bank of China set the set the reference rate for the yuan against the dollar, the mid-point from which the currency is allowed to trade, at 6.3524versus the previous day’s 6.3768. The USD/CNY pair slid 0.04% to trade at 6.3463.
The AUD/USD pair lost 0.01% at 0.7530. The Aussie reacted little to the bearish data after Australia’s home loans data came in -2.2%, worse than the expected -1.9% and the previous’ -0.2%.
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