Investing.com – The dollar was set to snap a four-week losing streak against its rivals Friday, on the back of a decline in the Japanese yen. The gains come amid growing investor optimism over a U.S-China trade deal after Chinese officials reportedly offered to boost U.S. imports.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, rose by 0.27% to 95.97.
China offered to boost annual imports of U.S. goods by a combined value of more than $1 trillion in a bid to cut its surplus with the U.S., Bloomberg reported.
The news fueled investor hopes that the stalemate between the U.S. and China may be resolved sooner rather later, prompting a rally in risk assets, which kept the safe-haven yen on its back foot.
USD/JPY rose 0.46% to Y109.74.
The dollar was also lifted by U.S. industrial production data that topped economists' forecasts. U.S. manufacturing output rose by 0.3% last month, beating economists' forecasts for a 0.2% rise.
Elsewhere, the pound gave back some of the gains against the greenback seen in the wake of the U.K. parliament's rejection of the government's Brexit deal.
USD/GBP fell 0.75% to $1.2887, but remained on track to post its fifth-weekly rise.
EUR/USD fell 0.26% to $1.1367, and the pair could be set for a further slide as analysts sound the alarm on Euro-area weakness. That could force the European central bank to turn more dovish in March.
"We continue to think the ECB will have to give us some sweeteners come March," Bank of America Merrill Lynch (NYSE:BAC) said.
USD/CAD fell 0.11% to C$1.3263 as a rally in oil prices and stronger-than-expected Canada inflation data supported the loonie, limiting gains in the pair.