In today’s trading the US dollar rate is stable against the euro and the yen and is strengthening against the pound. A day earlier, the dollar weakened against the world’s major currencies following the release of the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) November meeting minutes, which showed that the overwhelming majority of U.S. central bankers see the need to slow down the pace of rate hikes soon.

The ICE index that shows the dollar’s movement against six currencies (euro, Swiss franc, yen, Canadian dollar, pound and Swedish krona) lost 0.17% on Friday, while the broader WSJ Dollar Index was stable.

Current dollar rate

The euro/dollar pair was trading at $1.0411, up from $1.0410 at the close of the previous session. The dollar was trading at 138.61 yen against the Japanese yen at the same time, compared to 138.54 yen the previous day. The pound exchange rate fell to $1.2103, compared to $1.2113. Yesterday the dollar was 0.2% cheaper against the euro, 0.7% cheaper against the yen, and 0.5% cheaper against the pound.

“Some of the Fed leaders observed that monetary policy had reached a state in which it was sufficiently restrictive to meet FOMC goals and it would be appropriate to slow rate hikes. The vast majority of meeting participants felt that slowing the pace of the hike would probably be appropriate in the near term,” noted the minutes of the Nov. 1-2 Fed meeting.

Some of the U.S. central bank leaders, meanwhile, believed that the Fed would have to raise the rate higher than previously planned to meet its goal of easing inflation.

They indicated that the rate “would have to reach a somewhat higher level than previously expected,” given the lack of enough signals of easing in U.S. inflation at the moment, as well as the continuing imbalance of supply and demand in the economy.

Earlier we reported that Italian Enel plans to sell assets for 21 billion euros to reduce debt.