By Michael Kitchen, MarketWatch
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — The U.S. dollar moved back down in early Friday trading, with the euro getting a boost from vows by the Group of 20 to act together to keep European markets stable.
After hitting its highest level since January on Thursday, the dollar index DXY -0.37% , which measures the U.S. unit against a basket of six other currencies, slipped back down, trading at 78.216 during Asian hours Friday, down from 78.539 in late North American trade the previous day.
The euro EURUSD +0.40% recovered ground, rising to $1.3506 from $1.3446 late Thursday.
Late Thursday in Washington, G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors said they would work in a coordinated fashion to put an end to the latest financial crisis engulfing Europe. See report on G-20 communiqué.
Asian stock markets, which were open when the G-20 statement was released, mostly came off their lows of the day following the statement.
However, analysts at RBC Capital Markets said in a note that: “All in all, there appeared to be nothing [in the G-20 statement] in the way of concrete new action and markets were generally underwhelmed.”
They attributed some of the currency action to “profit taking after the recent volatile moves,” which were exacerbated by thin volumes, as Japan was closed for a holiday.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar USDJPY -0.02% rose to ¥76.33 from ¥76.23 late Thursday.
The British pound GBPUSD +0.54% rose to $1.5397 from $1.5339, while the Australian dollar AUDUSD +0.64% gained modestly to 97.73 U.S. cents, up from 96.99 cents.
The Canadian dollar, which plunged Thursday, recouped some of those losses. After rising 2.4% the previous day, the U.S. dollar USDCAD -0.26% eased to C$1.0272, down from C$1.0312.
Michael Kitchen is Asia editor for MarketWatch and is based in Los Angeles.
