Investing.com - The U.S. dollar was slightly higher against other currencies on Friday while the Japanese yen was lower as investors eyed trade war tensions.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.10% to 93.56 as of 5:41 AM ET (9:41 GMT). The index fell more than 1% over the week, as investors moved away from the greenback in light of U.S.-China trade war worry.
On Wednesday Premier Li Keqiang said Beijing will not engage in competitive currency devaluation, as China and Washington dug deeper into a trade war dispute.
Earlier in the week China said it will impose new tariffs on U.S. goods worth $60 billion, effective September 24. The new tariffs are in response to U.S. tariffs on Monday of 10% on $200 billion in Chinese goods, which will go up to 25% at the end of the year.
Elsewhere, the dollar rose against the safe-haven yen, with USD/JPY up 0.24% to 112.74 despite Japan’s inflation data coming in at a seven-month high.
The pound slumped amid Brexit uncertainty, with GBP/USD falling 0.51% to 1.3194. EUR/USD rose 0.04% to 1.1781 after Eurozone manufacturing PMI came in lower than expected.
The Australian dollar was flat, with AUD/USD down 0.03% to 0.7290. Ratings agency S&P affirmed Australia’s sovereign rating at AAA and raised the outlook from negative to stable on Thursday, with an improved fiscal outlook stable commodity prices cited as the reasons for the upgrade.
Meanwhile NZD/USD jumped 1.26% to 0.6694 after Moody also reaffirmed New Zealand's AAA rating.