A relatively quiet day ahead as we move into the weekend sees focus turn to the US once again.

USD-paired currencies struggled once again as traders flocked to the dollar. The EUR/USD opened at $1.13906 and climbed steadily throughout early and mid-session trading, where it reached a high of $1.14321. The pair then fell off a cliff shortly afterwards and continued its decline late in the session to bottom-out at $1.13547. It bounced off those lows and is currently trading at $1.13715. The pound followed a similar path to the euro after opening at $1.28774. The GBP/USD remained rather flat early before bumping up to a high of $1.29186. Just a few hours later, the pound fell sharply over a two-hour period, the declined late to hit a low of $1.27957. It is now trading at $1.28197.

The Dow rebounded strongly after the big sell-off from the day before. The index opened at 24,702.97 and dropped to a low of 24,589.21 during the second hour of the session. From there, the Dow began its steady climb throughout most of the session, peaking at 25,100.37 late. It pulled back from that high and is trading lower this morning, with the index currently at 24,821.70. The Dax finally put in a solid performance, after being dragged up by the Dow. The German index opened at 11,102.40 and dipped to a low of 11,076.10 a short time later. The gains kicked in after that, with the Dax climbing for the majority of the session, where it hit a high of 11,370.70 late before closing at 11,304.20.

The day ahead is a relatively quiet one as far as Fridays go but there is still some important data being released. The most significant release is the Advance GDP figure from the US. This figure has the potential to cause market volatility, particularly as markets have been quite sensitive over the last few days. Expectations are for 3.3% growth, way down from the 4.2% that was posted at the last reading of this figure. Other data set for publication today include:

Japan – Tokyo Core CPI

Europe – German GfK Consumer Climate, ECB President Mario Draghi speaks

US – Advance GDP Price Index, Revised UoM Consumer Sentiment & Inflation Expectations

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