Forex Today: US Dollar holds firm after Fed Chairman Powell's hawkish remarks

Here is what you need to know on Friday, November 10:

The US Dollar went into a consolidation phase early Friday after outperforming its major rivals on Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell's hawkish remarks late Thursday. Ahead of the weekend, the University of Michigan will release the preliminary Consumer Sentiment Index data for November.

While discussing monetary policy challenges in a global economy at an International Monetary Fund (IMF) panel late Thursday, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said that they are not confident that they have achieved a 'sufficiently restrictive' policy stance to bring inflation down to 2% over time. "We are making decisions meeting by meeting, based on the totality of the incoming data and their implications for the outlook for economic activity and inflation," Powell added. Following these comments, the benchmark 10-year US Treasury bond yield rose nearly 3% and climbed above 4.6%, providing a boost to the USD. In the meantime, Wall Street's main indexes came under bearish pressure and closed the day deep in negative territory.

The UK economy expanded at an annual rate of 0.6% in the third quarter, the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported on Friday. This reading matched the second quarter's growth rate and came in better than the market expectation of 0.5%. Other data from the UK showed that Total Business Investment contracted by 4.2% on a quarterly basis in the third quarter. Finally, Industrial Production and Manufacturing Production increased by 1.5% and 3%, respectively, on a yearly basis in September. GBP/USD showed no immediate reaction to these data and extended its sideways grind above 1.2200.

EUR/USD climbed above 1.0720 in the early American session on Thursday before turning south and retreating below 1.0700 toward the end of the day. In the European morning on Friday, the pair trades up and down in a tight channel slightly above 1.0650.

USD/JPY spent the Asian session fluctuating below 151.50 on Friday after closing the fourth consecutive day higher on Thursday. 

In the Monetary Policy Statement published early Friday, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) noted that inflation has passed its peak but said "whether further tightening of monetary policy is required to ensure that inflation returns to target in a reasonable timeframe will depend upon the data and the evolving assessment of risks." AUD/USD showed no reaction to this publication and was last seen moving sideways near 0.6350.

After falling to a fresh multi-week low below $1,950 early Thursday, Gold staged a rebound and climbed above $1,960 in the American trading hours. Rising US yields, however, made it difficult for XAU/USD to preserve its recovery momentum and caused it to return below $1,960.