Forex - Greenback lower on weak GDP despite sentiment jump

Investing.com - The greenback traded lower against its major counterparts Friday as weak U.S. GDP numbers weighed despite a Spanish downgrade and a jump in U.S. consumer sentiment.

During U.S. trade, the dollar was down against the euro, with EUR/USD adding 0.25% to trade at 1.3253. 

Depressing the greenback, the Gross Domestic Product numbers indicated that the U.S. economy expanded at a 2.2% rate in the first quarter, missing the 2.5% increase projected by economists, casting doubts on the economic growth.

Adding to global growth concerns, S&P slashed Spain’s long term debt rating to BBB+ reporting that the outlook is negative in the face of the recession undermining efforts to cut the budget deficit.

Additionally, the Spanish jobless rate spiked to 24.4%, hitting an eighteen year high, the National Statistics Institute reported.

In U.S. dollar bullish news, the U.S. UoM consumer sentiment rose unexpectedly last month, data showed on Friday.

In a report, the University of Michigan said that consumer sentiment rose to a seasonally adjusted 76.4, from 75.7 in the preceding month.

Analysts had expected UoM consumer sentiment to remain unchanged at 75.7 last month.

The greenback was lower against the pound, with GBP/USD up 0.42% to 1.6252. 

Elsewhere, the greenback was down against the yen and the Swiss franc, with USD/JPY giving back 0.65% to hit 80.47 and USD/CHF easing dropping 0.33% to trade at 0.9059. 

Meanwhile, in Japan, the central bank expanded its plan for government-bond purchases by 10 trillion yen to support the economy.

On the pro global growth side, data indicated Switzerland’s KOF economic barometer rose more-than-expected to a seasonally adjusted 0.40 last month from 0.09 in the preceding month whose figure was revised up from 0.08.

Analysts had expected the KOF economic barometer to rise to 0.26 last month. 

The greenback was lower against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD trading down 0.37% to trade at 0.9810, AUD/USD gaining 0.54% to hit 1.0445 and NZD/USD up 0.56% to hit 0.8192.

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.26% to trade at 78.80.