• The dollar was broadly steady on Friday and remained on track for solid weekly gains on growing expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve could raise interest rates as early as at its meeting this month, triggering a rise in U.S. Treasury yields.
The dollar index, which gauges the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.1 percent at102.140 but was within sight of the previous session's high of 102.260, which was its loftiest peak since Jan. 11.For the week, it was up more 1 percent.
That shoved the euro down to $1.0505 EUR= and set up a test of major support at the February low of $1.0492. The dollar likewise climbed to 114.37 yen JPY= and nearer to the recent peak of 114.95.
• The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell to near a 44-year low last week, pointing to further tightening of the labor market even as economic growth appears to have remained moderate in the first quarter.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 19,000 to a seasonally adjusted 223,000 for the week ended Feb. 25, the lowest level since March 1973, the Labor Department said on Thursday.
• A surge in business and consumer confidence during President Donald Trump's first weeks in office has helped push the Federal Reserve toward its first sustained series of interest rate hikes in more than a decade, despite a dearth of firm policies from the administration.
• An address by Fed Chair Janet Yellen here on Friday will cap a week in which Fed policy makers lined up behind the mantra that rates can rise "soon," with a quarter-point increase in March now firmly in play.
• Oil prices fell more than 2 percent on Thursday after Russian crude production remained unchanged in February, showing weak compliance with a global deal to curb supply to tighten the oversupplied market.
Brent futures ended the session $1.28, or 2.3 percent, lower at $55.08 per barrel and U.S. crude settled down $1.22, or 2.3 percent, at $52.61.
• Russia's February oil output was unchanged from January at 11.11 million barrels per day (bpd), energy ministry data showed, with cuts remaining at 100,000 bpd or just a third of the levels pledged by Moscow under the agreement with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Reference: Reuters
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