The US dollar ended the week mixed, but that was not a bad result considering that fundamentals were stacked up against the currency.
The increasing tensions between North Korea and the United States were weighing on the US currency during the first half of the week, though the impact weakened later. The damage done by Hurricane Harvey was another substantial, and perhaps longer-term, factor that was hurting the dollar. And another blow came by the end of the week in the form of weak nonfarm payrolls, though the greenback weathered that surprisingly well.
With all the bad news, especially geopolitical risks like the Brexit and North Korean missile tests, it was surprising that traders felt no particular need for safe currencies like the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc, which were among the weakest currencies during this week. The euro also did not perform well due to reports that the European Central Bank is going to postpone its quantitative easing tapering discussion till December.
EUR/USD opened at 1.1942, rallied to the weekly high of 1.2069, but retreated to settle at 1.1861. GBP/USD closed at 1.2952, not far from the opening of 1.2926. USD/JPY rallied from 109.17 to 110.24.
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