Investors were still assessing Wednesday's minutes from the Federal Reserve's July meeting, which they initially saw as supporting a less aggressive stance by the central bank. But the minutes did not clearly hint at the pace of rate increases and showed policymakers committed to raising rates to tame inflation.

- The US dollar has strengthened as best performer. Market players assessed several encouraging US macroeconomic readings that suggest the economy has a good chance to avoid recession.

- Economic data refers to Initial Jobless Claims declining to 250,000, below expectations, but Existing Home Sales fell to 4.81M, marking decline for the sixth month.

Equities:

- In Wall Street, U.S. stocks ended higher Thursday as an upbeat sales forecast from Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) helped to lift the technology sector, while data showed the economy remained relatively strong.

- Cisco's stock gained 5.8% and was among the biggest positives on the three major indexes, after it provided an upbeat forecast for first-quarter sales as a COVID-19 recovery in China eased supply chain shortages.

- The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 13 points, or 0.04%, to 33,016, the S&P 500 gained 9.7 points, or 0.23%, to 4,283.73 and the Nasdaq Composite added 29.8 points, or 0.22%, to 13,518.6.

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Currency Market:

- The Dollar Index traded 0.1% higher to 107.567, after earlier touching 107.72, its highest since July 18.

- EUR/USD fell 0.1% to 1.0083, after earlier dropping to 1.0070, the weakest since July 15. GBP/USD fell 0.1% to 1.1913 despite U.K. retail sales unexpectedly rising on the month in July.

- USD/JPY rose 0.5% to 136.56, with higher U.S. yields pushing this pair to its highest level since July 28.Risk sensitive AUD/USD fell 0.1% to 0.6910, while USD/CNY rose 0.3% to 6.8079.

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Commodities: Gold

- Gold prices fell slightly, and were set to end the week lower as hawkish signals from the U.S. Federal Reserve on the path of U.S. interest rates drove up the dollar.

- Spot gold fell 0.1% to $1,756.59 an ounce, while gold futures dipped by a similar amount to $1,769.70. Both instruments were set to lose about 2.6% this week, having fallen for all five sessions.

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Commodities: Oil

- Oil prices slipped after two days of gains, as market participants weighed worries about a global economic slowdown, which would dampen fuel demand, against expectations of tighter supplies toward year-end.

- Brent crude futures fell 68 cents, or 0.7%, to $95.91 a barrel after settling 3.1% higher on Thursday. WTI crude was at $89.81 a barrel, down 69 cents, or 0.8%, following a 2.7% increase in the previous session.
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