The Dollar remained under Thursday’s four-week high against major rivals on Friday ahead of the US jobs report that may sway the trajectory for US rates.

Major currencies remained broadly flat on Friday, with the Yen at 142.56 per Dollar, the Euro at $1.0952, and Sterling at $1.2710. The latter was trading just above Thursday’s almost five-week low following the Bank of England’s rate hike slowdown to 25 basis points.

At the time of writing, the Dollar index – measuring the currency against six peers – stood at 102.51, Reuters reports. Whereas on Thursday, the index reached its highest since 7th July at 102.84 but edged down later in the day.

The US jobs report is forecast to show a further slowdown in job growth in July, yet with sufficient momentum to protect the economy from a recession.

According to current market pricing, US interest rates will remain at their present level until early 2024, says ING FX strategist Francesco Pesole. Markets may shift to either price in an additional rate hike before the end of the year or advance the first rate cut, the Reuters report adds.

As such, “out-of-consensus NFP prints should trigger sizeable directional moves” in the Dollar against other currencies, Pesole said.

He went on to add that “elevated volatility in longer-dated yields should see that part of the curve move quite sharply after the release and continue to be a factor for FX today.”

Elsewhere, the Australian Dollar rose 0.2% to $0.6562 at the time of writing and previously gained as much as 0.59% as the recovery continued from Thursday’s two-month dip of $0.6514.

In India, the Rupee declined on Friday, along with the majority of Asian peers, following an additional rise in long-maturity US yields as rating agency Fitch downgraded the US government’s credit rating.

The Rupee was trading at 82.77 against the Dollar, a decline from Thursday’s 82.72. Most Asian currencies endured losses, with the Korean Won losing the most.