Investing.com - The British pound inched up against the U.S. dollar, supported by comments by Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who said he believes a Brexit deal is likely to be reached.
The GBP/USD pair inched up 0.2% to 1.2449 by 1:05 AM ET (05:05 GMT).
On Thursday, the prime ministers of the U.K. and Ireland released a joint statement saying they saw a potential pathway to a Brexit deal.
“The prime minister (Johnson) and taoiseach (Varadkar) have had a detailed and constructive discussion,” the joint statement said.
“Both continue to believe that a deal is in everybody’s interest. They agreed that they could see a pathway to a possible deal.”
The press release did not provide any further details.
Varadkar added that he was “absolutely convinced” a deal could likely be reached by the end of October when the U.K. is expected to leave the European Union.
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar steadied after falling overnight on weak CPI data, which raised the chances of the Federal Reserve cutting rates before the end of the year.
The U.S. dollar index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies slipped 0.1% to 98.383.
The core consumer price index rose by just 0.1% from the prior month, according to the Labor Department. The broader CPI was unchanged at 1.7% on an annual basis.
On the other hand, jobless numbers released on Thursday showed the unemployed rate remained near a 50-year low of 3.5%, suggesting that the labor market remained strong and complicating the decision from the central bank.
On the Sino-U.S. trade front, officials expressed optimism the two sides could be able to ease the trade war. U.S. President Donald Trump said he will meet with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He later in the day and said the first day of trade talks went well.
“We just completed a negotiation with China, we’re doing very well, we’re having another one tomorrow. I’m meeting with the vice premier over at the White House, and I think it’s going really well,” Trump said Thursday. “We’re going to see them tomorrow, right here, and it’s going very, very well.”
The yuan gained against the U.S. dollar following the news, as the USD/CNY pair lost 0.2% to 7.1024.
The USD/JPY pair was little changed at 107.96.