On Friday the dollar was soaring around 12-year highs against its peers, as news of the ECB stimulus program continued to pressure risk-related currencies and as markets awaited upcoming US data on manufacturing activity and a private sector report on existing home sales.
EUR/USD
tumbled 1.19% to fresh 11-year lows of 1.1227. After ECB President Mario Draghi on Thursday said
it will make monthly purchases of €60 billion per month, starting in
March and continuing until late 2016, the euro remained under broad selling pressure.
The data published Friday showing that the Markit preliminary composite purchasing managers' index, which measures activity in the manufacturing and services sectors in the euro area, rose to 52.2 this month from a reading of 51.4 in December. However, it hardly changed the sentiment on the single currency. Analysts had expected the index to rise to 51.8 in January.
In Germany, the preliminary manufacturing PMI ticked down to 51.0 this month from 51.2 in December, compared to expectations for a rise to 51.7, while the preliminary services PMI rose to 52.7 in January from 52.1 the previous month, exceeding expectations for a rise to 52.5.
Markit also said that France's preliminary manufacturing PMI rose to 49.5 this month from 47.5 in December, beating expectations for a rise to 48.1, while the services PMI fell to 49.5 in January from a reading of 50.6 the previous month, confounding expectations for an increase to 50.7.
The pound slid to new 18-month lows against the dollar, with GBP/USD down 0.16% to 1.4984.
Sterling showed little reaction to an earlier report by the Office for National Statistics showing that U.K. retail sales rose 0.4% in December, beating expectations for a 0.6% decline, after a 1.6% increase the previous month.
Year-on-year, retail sales increased by 4.3% last month, more than the expected 3.0% rise, after a 6.4% advance in November.
USD/JPY fell 0.25% to 118.21, while USD/CHF rose 0.21% to 0.8727.
The commodity-exposed currencies were broadly weaker. AUD/USD dropped 0.80% to five-and-a-half year lows at 0.7959 and NZD/USD declined 0.45% to trade at two-and-a-half year lows of 0.7468. USD/CAD gained 0.33% to 1.2421, hovering at a nearly six-year peak.
Also Friday, data showed that the China HSBC Flash Manufacturing Purchasing Manager's Index came in at 49.8 in January, compared to December's final of 49.6, while the January flash output index ticked up to 50.1 from 49.9 in December, placing it just in expansion territory above 50.
