Investing.com – The dollar remained roughly unchanged against a basket of major currencies on Friday amid an uptick in safe-haven demand as U.S.-North Korea tensions resurfaced but sterling weakness curbed downside momentum in the greenback.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, rose by 0.01% to 91.98.
North Korea said on Friday it might test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean as the ongoing war of words between President Donald Trump and his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong un continued after latter vowed to make a "mentally deranged" Trump pay dearly for an earlier threat to “totally destroy” North Korea if it threatened America or its allies.
In the wake of Kim Jong un’s comments, traditional safe-haven currencies like the yen and Swiss franc made strong gains the greenback.
USD/JPY fell to Y112.09, down 0.34% while USD/CHF fell to 0.9697 down 0.11%.
Losses in the greenback, however, were curbed by a slump in sterling following an update from British Prime Minister Theresa May on Brexit negotiations on Friday. In her speech, Mrs May proposed that Britain stay in the EU’s single market for a two-year “period of implementation” to smooth the Brexit process.
GBP/USD fell 0.43% to $1.3523.
EUR/USD tacked on 0.04% to $1.1946 while EUR/GBP gained 0.48% to £0.8834 as traders look ahead to Sunday’s German elections in which Chancellor Angela Merkel is widely expected to secure a fourth term.