The dollar slumped against major rivals on Friday, November 25 as investors took advantage of a minor pullback in U.S. bond yields from recent highs and a holiday-shortened week to consolidate gains that had propelled the currency to a nearly 14-year peak.
Expectations of higher U.S. inflation and interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve have driven the greenback to a more than 6 percent gain in the last two months, its strongest showing over a similar period since early 2015, Reuters reports.
In afternoon trading on Friday, U.S. 10-year Treasury yields were up slightly from the previous session at 2.359 percent, but off from Thursday’s 16-month high of 2.417 percent. U.S. two-year yields slipped from a more than six-year high hit earlier in the session and were last at 1.130 percent. The step-back in yields drove a modest selloff in the dollar.
In early afternoon trading, the dollar index fell 0.3 percent to 101.42 after hitting an almost 14-month peak the previous session. The index posted its largest one-day fall since early November.
After hitting an 8-month high of 113.90 yen earlier, the dollar was down 0.2 percent against the yen at 113.11 yen, although it still ended the week with a 2 percent gain.
