The US dollar index is down by 0.3% at 100.77 as of 8:08 a.m. ET.
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump once again said that a stronger dollar hurts American manufacturers.
In an exchange with Caterpillar’s chairman Doug Oberhelman, he said that when the dollar strengthens “and we let other people manipulate their currencies, that’s the one thing that stops you.”
Meanwhile, on Wednesday Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told the Wall Street Journal, “I think the strength of the dollar has a lot to do with kind of where our economy is relative to the rest of the world, and that the dollar continues to be the leading currency in the world, the leading reserve currency and a reflection of confidence that people have in the US economy.”
Separately, the University of Michigan's survey of consumer sentiment and new-home sales will be published at 10 a.m. ET.
As for the rest of the world, here's the scoreboard as of 8:31 a.m. ET:
- Trump called China the "grand champions" of currency manipulation on Thursday, after which Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Friday, "China has no intention of seeking foreign trade advantages via an intentional devaluation of the renminbi. There is no basis for the continued devaluation of the renminbi." The Canadian dollar is up by 0.3% at 1.3072 per US dollar after data showed that CPI rose by 0.9% month-over-month in January, above expectations of a 0.3% uptick. Meanwhile, core CPI rose by 0.5% in January, above expectations of a 0.1% drop. The euro is up by 0.3% at 1.0610 against the dollar. "We expected the EUR to remain under selling pressure, with risks related to politics only explaining part of EUR weakness," a Morgan Stanley FX team led by Hans W. Redeker argued in a note on Thursday. The Russian ruble is little changed at 58.1413 per dollar, while Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, is down by 1.0% at $56.02 per barrel. The Japanese yen is up by 0.4% at 112.14 per dollar,