The U.S. Dollar Index fell to a one-week low on Friday and closed down by 0.24%. Dovish comments from former New York Fed President Dudley lowered bond yields and pressured the USD as he stated that he saw "a strong case for a 50-basis point rate cut" at the FOMC meeting this week.

The strength of the Japanese yen also weakened the USD, with the yen rising to an eight-and-a-half-month high against the USD on Friday. Additionally, the rally in U.S. stocks on Friday limited liquidity demand for the USD.

Meanwhile, U.S. economic news on Friday was mixed for the USD. The U.S. August import price index excluding petroleum unexpectedly fell by 0.1% month-on-month, weaker than the expected 0.2% month-on-month increase. The University of Michigan's U.S. consumer sentiment index for September rose 1.1 to a four-month high of 69, stronger than the expected 68.5.

The market is pricing in a 100% chance that the Fed will cut interest rates by 25 basis points at the FOMC meeting on September 17-18 and a 53% chance for a 50-basis point cut at that meeting.

Regarding the euro (EUR) movement, it edged up against the USD on Friday, reaching a one-week high. The euro was also supported by comments from some European Central Bank (ECB) members indicating that they did not support a rate cut at the ECB meeting in October.

ECB President Lagarde stated that she was willing to consider a rate cut in October if the Eurozone economy suffered a significant downturn, but the likelihood of a cut at the December ECB meeting was higher as by then, the ECB would have more comprehensive information about the economy.

Precious metal prices also rose on Friday, with December gold futures seeing the highest gain among futures contracts, and the nearest month's futures hitting a record high of $2,581.8/ounce. The catalyst for metal prices was the weakening of the USD to a one-week low and lower global bond yields on Friday. Finally, gold purchasing by funds supported the gold price as long positions by ETFs rose to a seven-month high on Thursday.

The settlement price of the December Silver Futures was at $31.074 per troy ounce in the last session of the week, up 3% from the previous session.

The October Platinum Futures price surged nearly 3% from the previous session, with the settlement price on September 13 standing at $1,006.8.

The October Copper Futures price also rose by nearly 1% from the previous session, with the settlement price on September 13 at $4.236 per pound.

Source: Barchart