Currencies

Dollar index is little changed after hitting fresh 20-year high

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Image showing U.S. dollar bills
Igor Golovniov |SOPA Images| LightRocket via Getty Images

The dollar index pared gains Friday after hitting a new 20-year high, as traders weighed a recent global market sell-off stoked by recession fears.

European stocks were lower following a rout on Wall Street.

The U.S. currency has stood tall on expectations the Federal Reserve will tighten monetary policy faster than peers to stem runaway inflation.

The U.S. added 428,000 jobs in April, which was slightly more than the 400,000 expected by the Dow Jones.

The dollar index, which tracks its performance against a basket of six major rivals, gained as much as 0.5% in early European trading hours to hit a fresh 20-year high of 104.07.

But it later lost ground in choppy trade, and was last down 0.1% at 103.66. It posted a fifth straight week of gains, up 0.7% over the 1-week period.

The Fed raised rates by half a percentage point on Wednesday - the biggest jump in 22 years - but the dollar temporarily cooled on Fed Chair Jerome Powell comments that policymakers were not actively considering 75 basis point hikes in future.

"Financial market conditions will have to get tighter in order to alter central bank thinking on inflation risks and hence the US dollar is set to remain on a strengthening path for now," currency analysts at MUFG said in a note.

The euro lost as much as 0.5% against the dollar in early European trading hours, before reversing course. It was last little changed at $1.0545.

Sterling traded at $1.2337 after earlier dropping below $1.23 for the first time in nearly two years, a day after the Bank of England sent a stark warning that Britain risks a double-whammy of a recession and inflation above 10%.

The BoE also joined the Fed in raising rates, hiking them by a quarter of a percentage point to 1%.

The yen gained slightly against the dollar, up 0.4% to 130.58 yen per dollar.