Investing.com - The U.S. dollar re-approached recent three-year los against other major currencies on Friday, amid fears of a potential government shutdown on Saturday and amid climbing U.S. Treasury yields.
Sentiment on the greenback remained vulnerable as U.S. lawmakers failed to agree on a federal budget deal on Thursday, sparking fears of a government shutdown this weekend.
The dollar was also affected by the fact that the yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury hit its highest level since 2014.
The dollar has been pressured lower in recen sessions amid concerns the global economic recovery will outpace U.S. growth and prompt other major central banks, including the European Central Bank to begin unwinding loose monetary policy at a faster pace.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.28% at 90.06 by 05:15 a.m. ET (09:15 GMT), moving closer to Wednesday's three-year trough of 89.97.
The euro and the pound were higher, with EUR/USD up 0.35% at 1.2281 and with GBP/USD adding 0.11% to 1.3912.
Sterling retreated from session highs after data on Friday showed that UK retail sales declined much more than expected in December.
The yen and the Swiss franc were stronger, with USD/JPY down 0.44% at 110.61 and with USD/CHF shedding 0.30% to 0.9559.
Elsewhere, the Australian dollar was also higher, with AUD/USD up 0.26% at 0.8020, while NZD/USD was little changed at 0.7301.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD was almost unchanged at 1.2414.