What to keep in mind on Friday, March 28:
The US dollar rose on Thursday, helped by hawkish comments from Federal Reserve (Fed) official Waller, who suggested the central bank could keep rates at current restrictive levels for longer. Short-term bond yields advanced, while stock markets also maintained positive momentum.
Fabio Panetta, member of the Council of the European Central Bank (ECB), repeated that the risks to price stability in the Eurozone are decreasing, which materializes the conditions to begin to relax monetary policy. Several ECB officials have hinted at a rate cut in June, in line with President Christine Lagarde.
Data from the United States was generally encouraging. The final estimate for fourth-quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was revised upward to 3.4% from the previous estimate of 3.2%. Additionally, initial jobless claims were released for the week ending March 22, which were better than expected and stood at 210,000 claims. Finally, the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for March was revised up to 79.4, much better than the preliminary estimate of 76.5, while pending home sales rose 1.6% month-on-month in February, beating expectations.
Most markets will remain closed on Friday for the Easter holiday, although Japanese markets will operate normally. Later in the United States, the personal consumption expenditure (PCE) price index, the Fed's favorite inflation figure, will be published, which is expected to remain stable at 2.8% annually.
The Euro was one of the worst performing currencies, as the EUR/USD pair fell below the 1.0800 threshold.
The GBP/USD pair ended the day with slight losses after confirming that the Gross Domestic Product will be -0.2% annually in the last quarter of 2023.
Commodity currencies traded mixed, with AUD/USD posting a modest decline and settling around 0.6514 amid tepid Australian data, but USD/CAD falling towards 1.3520, helped by the good performance of the stock markets.
Gold performed the best, and is flirting with all-time highs, with XAU/USD trading around $2,220.
Price of the US dollar today
The following table shows the percentage variation of the United States Dollar (USD) against the main currencies quoted today. The US Dollar was the strongest currency against the New Zealand Dollar.
| USD | EUR | GBP | CAD | AUD | JPY | NZD | CHF | |
| USD | 0.23% | -0.06% | -0.32% | 0.08% | 0.07% | 0.30% | -0.42% | |
| EUR | -0.23% | -0.27% | -0.54% | -0.14% | -0.14% | 0.07% | -0.65% | |
| GBP | 0.04% | 0.28% | -0.27% | 0.13% | 0.14% | 0.35% | -0.37% | |
| CAD | 0.31% | 0.54% | 0.26% | 0.40% | 0.38% | 0.60% | -0.11% | |
| AUD | -0.08% | 0.14% | -0.13% | -0.40% | -0.02% | 0.21% | -0.51% | |
| JPY | -0.07% | 0.17% | -0.13% | -0.37% | 0.03% | 0.26% | -0.52% | |
| NZD | -0.30% | -0.06% | -0.34% | -0.61% | -0.21% | -0.23% | -0.72% | |
| CHF | 0.42% | 0.65% | 0.37% | 0.11% | 0.51% | 0.48% | 0.71% |
The heat map shows the percentage changes of the major currencies against each other. The base currency is chosen in the left column, while the quote currency is chosen in the top row. For example, if you choose the Euro in the left column and scroll down the horizontal line to the Japanese Yen, the percentage change that appears in the box will represent EUR (base)/JPY (quote).
Source: Fx Street
I am Joshua Winder, a senior-level journalist and editor at World Stock Market. I specialize in covering news related to the stock market and economic trends. With more than 8 years of experience in this field, I have become an expert in financial reporting.
