USD

On a day that saw the US markets closed, the Dollar was mixed in very light trading on Friday and closed out the week almost as it began against most of the major currencies.

The Friday session capped a week of up and down trading which saw the Dollar take hits from China and India over its status as the world’s reserve currency and weathering terrible and unexpected unemployment data.  

As we look towards this week, with the payroll data out of the way, investors will likely focus on a Group of Eight (G8) meeting on July 8-10 for any further debate on currency diversification plans.  

China, India and Russia have all called for an “open and healthy debate” on the matter, while Japan has made calls for all countries to support the Dollar’s current status in the Forex markets.

At the close, the US Dollar was up .01% to the Japanese Yen to 96.01, down .2% to the Canadian Dollar to 1.1607, up .35% to the British Pound to 1.633, down .4% to the Australian Dollar to .7968, up .25% to the New Zealand Dollar to .6297.

EUR

Friday saw the European Union release data that showed the Purchasing Managers Index fall 1.10th of 1 percent to 44.7 and another indicator showed that retail sales fell by 4%, more than the 1% that was expected.  

The saving grace for the Euro was the light trading and the concerns over the Dollar. Another minus for the Euro was the unemployment data which showed that it had risen to a ten year high giving trader’s reinforcement in their belief that the Euro has a long and painful road ahead to recovery.

At closing the Euro was down .17% to the US Dollar to 1.3977, up .1% to the Swiss Franc to 1.5187, down .6% to the Australian Dollar to 1.7538, up .2% to the British Pound to .8557, down .3% to the Canadian Dollar to 1.6227 and down .07% to the Yen to 134.23.