LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. dollar lost ground to the European single currency Friday, feeling modest pressure as rising global equity markets pointed to a rise in risk appetite.
The euro traded at $1.3919, up from $1.3889 in late North American trading Thursday, but remained in a tight trading range.
The euro has tended to gain ground when equities rise, while the dollar and the Japanese yen have tended to lose ground as investors shift away from perceived safe-haven assets.
European equity markets were higher. See Europe Markets.
Asian equities closed higher Friday, following on from Thursday's U.S. equity gains. U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher opening for Wall Street. Read Indications.
The firm tone in equity markets helped set a positive tone for the euro, but the foreign exchange markets appear to be ending the week on a "very quiet note," said Nick Stamenkovic, an economist at RIA Capital in Edinburgh.
No major economic data were released in the euro zone or the United Kingdom Friday, and the U.S. calendar is also largely bare.
Attention is beginning to turn toward next week's meeting of the Federal Reserve's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee, analysts said.
Meanwhile, rising risk appetite provided relief to commodity currencies, including the Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar, wrote strategists at UniCredit MIB in Milan.
The Australian dollar rose 0.9% to 80.57 U.S. cents. The U.S. unit slipped 0.2% versus the kiwi to NZ$1.5625.
The dollar edged higher versus the Japanese yen to trade at 97.08 yen, up from 96.56 yen.
The dollar index (DXY 80.46, -0.15, -0.19%) , a measure of the greenback against a basket of major currencies, stood at 80.456, down slightly from 80.671 in North American trade late Thursday.
