Major currency pairs little changed amid mixed trade war signals

On Friday, major currency pairs changed little amid mixed signals on the US-China trade war progress.

The US Dollar index last traded at 97.835 by (05:05 GMT), down from 0.04%.

According to the Wall Street Journal, China invited top US trade officials, including Robert Lighthizer (US Trade Representative) and Steven Mnuchin (US Treasury Secretary), to China for a new round of face-to-face negotiations.

The report came a day after Reuters said the two sides might not sign a partial deal this year.

While Chinese officials hinted that China and the US were close to signing a deal, last week’s comments by Donald Trump dampened hopes for a quick trade deal. Trump said he did not agree to roll back existing tariffs.

The USD/CNY pair- usually a sensitive pair to trade news, remained little changed at 7.0343.

“Headline fatigue has set in,” said Ray Attrill in a Reuters report. Ray is the head of FX strategy at the National Australia Bank.

“With the constant barrage of seemingly contradictory stuff, the market’s given up trying to second-guess…seeing is believing, and we’ll trade it once we know what’s happening.”

On the data front, flash purchasing managers index from Germany, the Eurozone, Britain, and the US are all due later on Friday.

The AUD/USD pair and the NZD/USD pair both traded 0.1% higher.

The GBP/USD pair was near flat at 1.2916.

The USD/JPY pair remained the same at 108.62.