Here's what you need to know on Friday, March 14:
The US Dollar (USD) held steady in European morning trading on Friday (3/14), with the USD Index holding in positive territory near 104.00 after posting modest gains for two straight days. The US economic docket will feature the University of Michigan's preliminary Consumer Sentiment Index data for March ahead of the weekend.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer announced late Thursday that he plans to vote to keep the government open as the chamber prepares to debate a stopgap GOP bill to continue funding the government on Friday. US stock index futures were last seen rising between 0.5% and 0.8% after Wall Street's major indexes posted big losses on Thursday. Meanwhile, the yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury bond held steady, just below 4.3%.
Earlier in the European session, the UK's Office for National Statistics reported that UK Gross Domestic Product contracted by 0.1% on a monthly basis in January. Other data showed that Manufacturing Production and Industrial Production fell by 1.1% and 0.9% respectively in the same period. These figures were lower than analysts' estimates and put pressure on the pound. At the time of writing, GBP/USD was trading in the red below 1.2950.
Gold maintained its bullish momentum and gained more than 1.8% on Thursday. After hitting a new record high above $2,990 during Asian trading hours on Friday, XAU/USD appears to have entered a consolidation phase near $2,980.
EUR/USD struggled to gain traction and was trading just below 1.0850 during European morning on Friday. In a social media post on Thursday, US President Donald Trump said that he would seek to impose a 200% tariff on European wine and champagne. In response, French Finance Minister Eric Lombard said Trump's threat to increase tariffs on French liquor imports was not surprising and called his move a "stupid war." USD/CAD rose about 0.5% on Thursday and erased Wednesday's losses. The pair was relatively quiet and fluctuated around 1.4400 on Friday morning. Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said late Thursday that tariffs are hurting both the U.S. and Canada, adding that moving forward with dialogue is critical.
After posting small losses on Thursday, USD/JPY gathered bullish momentum and rose about 0.8% on the day to approach 149.00 on Friday. Japan's largest labor union group Rengo announced on Friday that first-round data showed an average wage increase of 5.46% for fiscal 2025, below the 6.09% increase requested. (Newsmaker23)
Source: FXstreet
