Investing.com - The dollar pares gains against the other major currencies on Friday, re-approaching a one-month low as markets continued to digest the European Central Bank’s most recent policy statement.
EUR/USD was down 0.30% at 1.1142, off 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 rose 0.33% to 113.57.
The dollar was lower against the pound, with GBP/USD up 0.57% at a fresh three-month high of 1.4363 and was steady against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF at 0.9854.
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 1.40% at 0.7558 and with NZD/USD advancing 0.97% to 0.6733.
USD/CAD retreated 0.86% to 1.3232. Demand for the commodity-related was boosted as oil prices continued to rise and were hovering at three-month highs above $38 a barrel.
Markets shrugged off a report by Statistics Canada showing that the number of employed people declined by 2,300 in February, compared to expectations for a 9,000 increase and after a 5,700 drop the previous month.
The report also showed that Canada’s unemployment rate ticked up to a three-year high of 7.3% last month from 7.2% in January. Analysts had expected the unemployment rate to remain unchanged in February.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was steady at 96.24, re-approaching the previous session’s one-month lows of 95.94 after rising to highs of 96.72 earlier in the day.