Forex - Greenback mixed on cusp of consumer sentiment data

Investing.com - The U.S. dollar traded mixed against its rivals Friday, as investors awaited the release of U.S. consumer sentiment data amid speculation of potential Fed easing measures.

During Friday’s session, the dollar was flat against the euro, with EUR/USD trading at 1.2354.

The single currency found support earlier, after German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed support for European Central Bank intervention in order to ease the effects of the euro zone's financial crisis. 

Merkel said that comments by ECB President Mario Draghi, who outlined conditional plans at the start of the month to buy bonds of troubled euro zone governments, were "completely in line" with the approach taken by European leaders and urged the bloc to now act swiftly to tackle its debt woes. 

But investors remained cautious after official data showed that producer prices in Germany were unchanged in July, compared to expectations for a 0.4% rise and following a 0.4% decline the previous month.

In addition, the Bank of Spain said that Spanish banks' bad loans rose to 9.42% of their outstanding portfolios in June, the highest level on record, up from 8.95% a month earlier.

Markets were also jittery after a string of mixed U.S. economic reports over the week left investors uncertain over whether the Federal Reserve will soon announce fresh stimulus measures.

The greenback was higher against the pound, with GBP/USD falling 0.26% to 1.5692.

Elsewhere, the greenback was fractionally higher against the yen, with USD/JPY edging up 0.07% to hit 79.39, and steady against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF dipping 0.04% to trade at 0.9717.

In addition, the greenback was higher against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD adding 0.06% to 0.9872,AUD/USD dropping 0.57% to 1.0450 and NZD/USD shedding 0.23% to hit 0.8085.

Earlier in the day, official data showed that producer price inflation input in New Zealand rose 0.6% in the second quarter, beating expectations for a 0.2% fall and following a 0.3% increase in the previous quarter.

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.07%, to trade at 82.50.

Later in the day, the U.S. was to release a preliminary report by the University of Michigan on consumer sentiment and inflation expectations.