Investing.com - The U.S. dollar was near flat on Friday in Asia as traders digested the latest trade news.
The USD/CNY pair inched up 0.1% to 6.9765 by 11:34 PM ET (03:34 GMT).
The People’s Bank of China on Friday set its daily midpoint fix stronger than 7 yuan per dollar for the first time since early August.
On the Sino-U.S. trade front, the two sides seemed to have made some breakthrough as a spokesperson for China’s Commerce Ministry said the Beijing and Washington have agreed to roll back some of the existing tariffs on each others’ goods.
The news came on the back of reports from earlier this week that U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping may not be able to sign a partial trade deal this month as previously planned.
The signing may get delayed until December and will probably happen outside of the U.S., todays’ report suggested.
Markets widely expected the deal to be signed at an international summit in Chile this month. The summit was cancelled because of protests in the capital, Santiago.
The U.S. Dollar Index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies was near flat at 97.970.
The AUD/USD pair fell 0.2% to 0.6883. The Reserve Bank of Australia said in a 81 page quarterly statement on monetary policy released on Friday that the country’s economy was “gradually coming out of a soft patch.”
Global markets also appeared to have passed a “trough of pessimism,” the central bank said.
The British Pound was little changed against the U.S. dollar but traded near a two-week low after two Bank of England unexpectedly voted to cut interest rates.
The cut was due to uncertainties posed by concerns surrounding Britain's exit from the European Union, the central bank said.
The EUR/USD pair was also little changed.
The USD/JPY pair last traded at 109.23, down 0.03%.