Early trade in New York: dollar slips broadly, on track for worst weekly fall since May

The dollar remained weak against a basket of currencies on Friday, bruised by comments by senior US officials this week backing a weak dollar and after data showed US economic growth unexpectedly slowed in the fourth quarter. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.44 percent at 89.002 and on track for a weekly fall of 1.7 percent, its worst performance since May.
President Donald Trump's comments on Thursday that he wanted a "strong dollar," a day after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said a weaker greenback would help US trade balances in the short term, failed to put a lid on volatility and keep dollar bears in check. The euro was up 0.3 percent against the greenback at $1.2432, after hitting a more than three-year high of $1.2536 on Thursday.
"$1.25 in euro-dollar is a critical level and it's got a lot of sticker shock associated with it," said Greg Anderson, global head of FX strategy at BMO Capital Markets.