Investing.com - The U.S. dollar rose on Friday after comments from U.S. President Donald Trump on China increased hope that the two sides would sign a trade deal soon.
Speaking on Fox News, Trump said a deal with China was “potentially very close,” and also indicated that he might not sign a bill passed this week by Congress that supports Hong Kong in an attempt to appease Beijing.
"We have to stand with Hong Kong, but I’m also standing with President Xi [Jinping], he’s a friend of mine," Trump said. "He’s an incredible guy, but we have to stand…I’d like to see them work it out, ok?”
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a basket of six major currencies, was steady at 97.760 as of 9:56 AM ET (14:56 GMT) after rising to 97.920 earlier in the session.
The greenback was also supported by an increase in U.S. manufacturing output in November, data showed. The services activity also picked up, IHS Markit said, as both indexes were at their highest level since April.
The safe-haven Japanese yen was flat with USD/JPY at 108.61.
Elsewhere, sterling tumbled, with GBP/USD falling 0.5% to 1.2845 while EUR/USD slipped 0.1% to 1.1042. The trade-sensitive Australian dollar was flat, with AUD/USD at 0.6784.