Investing.com - The dollar moved higher against the other major currencies on Friday, as it recovered from losses posted after European Central President Mario Draghi said the bank had no intention of cutting interest rates further.
EUR/USD dropped 0.77% to 1.1092, pulling away from the previous session’s one-month peak of 1.1217.
The euro had found some support after ECB President Draghi said on Thursday that the central bank did not anticipate that it will be necessary to reduce interest rates further, but added that this could change.
But demand for the single curreny remained under pressure as the ECB cut its benchmark interest rate to a record-low of zero from 0.05%. Market watchers had been expecting no change.
The central bank also cut the deposit facility rate deeper into negative territory, to minus 0.4% and cut the marginal lending rate cut to 0.25% from 0.30%.
In addition, the ECB boosted its quantitative easing program by €20 billion per month to €80 billion, starting in April.
USD/JPY gained 0.49% to 113.76.
The dollar was lower against the pound, with GBP/USD up 0.09% at 1.4292, near Thursday’s three-week high of 1.4321, and was higher against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF rising 0.28% to 0.9878.
The U.K. Office for National Statistics earlier said the trade deficit narrowed to £10.29 billion in January from £10.45 billion in December, whose figure was revised from an initial deficit of £9.92 billion.
Economists had expected the trade deficit to come in at £10.3 billion in January.
Meanwhile, the Australian and New Zealand dollars were stronger, with AUD/USD up 0.80% at 0.7514 and with NZD/USD gaining 0.45% to 0.6697.
USD/CAD retreated 0.84% to 1.3234. Demand for the commodity-related was boosted as oil prices continued to rise on Friday and were hovering at three-month highs above $38 a barrel.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.47% at 96.65, off the previous session’s one-month lows of 95.94.