Investing.com - The dollar eased slightly in Asia on Friday as President Donald Trump told his Chiense counterpart Xi Jinping that the U.S. would stick with the "One China" policy, esaing tension between the world's two largest economies and China trade data eased growth concerns.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, eased 0.02% to 100.64. USD/JPY rose 0.36% to 113.66, while AUD/USD gained 0.26% to 0.7644.
China's January dollar denominated trade surplus came in at $51.35 billion, well above the $47.9 billion expected. Exports rose 7.9%, well above the 3.3% expected and imports jumped 16.7%, more than the 10% increase seen.
Earlier China's customs said yuan-denominated exports rose 15.9% year-on-year and imports jumped 25.2% from a year earlier.
Trump however received setback as a federal court declined to lift a suspension on a ban on immigrants from seven countries. As well, investors aere awaiting rating agency Moody's review of Italy (BBB) and France's (AA) sovereign ratings later in the day.
"This does not necessarily mean any ratings actions but should be worth monitoring given how French yields have been rising in recent sessions," invstment bank Macquarie said.
Overnight, the dollar extended gains against other major currencies on Thursday, after comments by U.S. President Donald Trump and upbeat U.S. jobless claims data.
During a meeting with airline CEOs on Thursday, Trump said he would be announcing something over the next two or three weeks that would be “phenomenal” in terms of tax. He also said that regulations will be rolled back, but it was unclear if the remarks related specifically to the aviation sector or to the broader U.S. economy. The comments came after the U.S. Department of Labor said initial jobless claims decreased by 12,000 to 234,000 in the week ending February 4 from the previous week’s total of 246,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 4,000 to 250,000 last week.
Meanwhile, the euro remained under pressure amid concerns over the possibility of a Brexit or Trump-style shock result in France’s upcoming presidential election.
Worries over elections in the Netherlands, Germany and possibly Italy, as well as the ongoing row over Greece's bailout added to concerns over political risk in the euro area.