Dollar Has A Weaker Showing Against Major Counterparts On Friday []

The U.S. dollar was weaker on Friday than it had been during the earlier part of the week. The greenback lost ground to the euro, pound and yen during trading in New York. The day's action took place amid a poor showing on Wall Street and the release of higher inflation data in the morning.The dollar lost ground to the euro during the first half of Friday morning in New York. The dollar regained a little ground mid-morning, but dropped until the pair became range-bound in the afternoon. The dollar's early retreat added to losses posted over the last couple days, which took the dollar to 1.3339 at 7 am ET, its lowest level against the euro since mid-December. By 3:45 the pair traded around 1.3311.The greenback slipped in trading with the pound during Friday morning in New York. The buck slid to 1.9505 with the release of the U.S. economic data, a two-week low. The dollar regained some of its losses during the late morning, however, and was range bound during the afternoon. By 3:45 pm ET, the pair traded around 1.9414.The dollar dropped in trading with yen during the early morning in New York on Friday. This added to losses that were seen during Thursday afternoon. The retreat reversed some of the gains the dollar saw against the yen earlier in the week. The buck spent most of the late morning and early afternoon range bound against the yen. By 3:45 pm ET, the pair traded around 116.74.Friday morning, the Department of Labor said that its consumer price index rose 0.4 percent in February following a 0.2 percent increase in the previous month. Economists had been expecting a slightly more modest increase of 0.3 percent. The report also showed that the core consumer price index, which excludes food and energy prices, edged up 0.2 percent in February after rising 0.3 percent in January. The increase by the core index came in line with economist estimates.Also on Friday, The Federal Reserve released its report on industrial production and capacity utilization in the month of February, showing that production rose much more than economists had been expecting. The capacity utilization rate also came in above economist estimates. The report showed that industrial production rose 1.0 percent in February following a revised 0.3 percent decrease in January. Economists had expected production to increase by a more modest 0.3 percent compared to the 0.5 percent decrease originally reported for the previous month. The capacity utilization rate also rose, climbing to 82.0 percent in February from an upwardly revised 81.4 percent in the previous month. The rate had been expected to edge up to 81.3 percent to from the 81.2 percent originally reported for January.Later in the morning, the University of Michigan saw its consumer sentiment data for March fall to its lowest level since the September. The index dropped to 88.8 in March, from 91.3 in February. The decline was slightly lower than analysts' consensus.