Dollar Subdued As Traders Await G20 News

(RTTNews) - The U.S. dollar recovered from early weakness but eased subsequently and stayed in a tight range on Friday as traders continued to make cautious moves, as they awaited the outcome of the G20 summit in Japan.

Traders stayed wary of making significant moves ahead to the highly anticipated meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit.

Trump and Xi are not expected to come out of the meeting with a finalized trade deal, but markets are looking for signs of progress toward kick-starting the stalled negotiations between the two economic superpowers.

Hopes about an interest rate cut continued to weigh on greenback. Though key officials from the Federal Reserve, including Chairman Jerome Powell, have more or less ruled out a steep cut in rates, analysts are expecting a cut of at least 25 basis points in July.

The dollar index, which advanced to 96.30 from a low of 96.02 it touched a little before noon, was last seen hovering around 96.20, little changed from previous close.

Against the euro, the dollar was up marginally at 1.1368.

The sterling was stronger against the greenback, gaining 0.17% at $1.2693.

The Japanese yen weakened to 107.86 a dollar, down from 107.79 yen overnight.

The loonie and Swiss franc were up marginally against the greeback, at 1.3092 and 0.9674, respectively. The Aussie was up 0.17% at 0.7021.

In economic news, data released by the Commerce Department showed U.S. personal income climbed by 0.5% in May. Economists had expected income to rise by 0.3%. As expected, personal spending rose by 0.4% in May following an upwardly revised 0.6% increase in April.

Revised data released by the University of Michigan on Friday showed U.S. consumer sentiment deteriorated by slightly less than initially estimated in the month of June.

The report said the consumer sentiment index for June was upwardly revised to 98.2 from 97.9, although it remains below the final May reading of 100.0. Economists had expected the index to be upwardly revised to 98.0.

Chicago-area business activity unexpectedly contracted in the month of June, falling below 50 for the first time since January 2017, according to a report released by MNI Indicators on Friday. The Chicago business barometer tumbled to 49.7 in June after rising to 54.2 in May. Economists had expected the index to edge down to 53.1.