Investing.com -- The dollar is settling into a tight range early Friday in Europe ahead of the all-important U.S. employment report, due at 08:30 AM ET (12:30 GMT).
The U.S. currency received only a short-lived boost from statements by President Donald Trump which indicated that a trade agreement is still at least four weeks away and gave no details about the issues still outstanding.
At 04:00 AM ET (08:00 GMT), the dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was at 96.852, down around 0.1% from its overnight high.
The British pound is also range-bound as the market awaits the outcome of efforts by Prime Minister Theresa May and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn to find a cross-party consensus on an alternative to the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated with the EU.
The pound has been supported by a vote late Wednesday which further constrained the government’s ability to choose crashing out without transitional arrangements in place at the end of next week. A no-deal Brexit remains the legal default, however, unless the EU member states agree unanimously to extend the deadline. The BBC reported overnight that EU Council President Donald Tusk was open to offering a 12-month extension, although French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire was quoted elsewhere as saying there would need to be a convincing reason.
The euro is a little stronger after German industrial production in February rose slightly more than expected, taking the edge off Thursday’s disappointment over another plunge in manufacturing orders.
“What first looked like the result of a series of negative one-off factors has all of a sudden received the flavor of an industrial meltdown,” said ING economist Carsten Brzeski, noting that the rise was entirely due to the construction sector, while manufacturing output continued to shrink. “Brexit woes and the global slowdown have a stranglehold over German industry.”
Elsewhere, the Turkish lira remains under pressure after a smaller-than-expected rise in the central bank’s foreign reserves last week, while the yen was a fraction weaker after disappointing household spending data.