This Friday, the foreign exchange market experienced mixed trends. While the dollar is heading for a weekly gain, the South African rand and the yen are up, while the ruble is weakening

The dollar was heading for a weekly gain on Friday, helped by solid U.S. growth figures that strengthened the case for higher and longer interest rates. The US dollar index stabilized at 106.52, after reaching a three-week high of 106.89 in the previous session, and was on track to achieve a weekly gain of around 0.35%. The Australian dollar, often used as an indicator of risk appetite, gained 0.32% to $0.6342, after falling to a one-year low of $0.6271 on

For its part, the South African rand rose slightly in early trading on Friday ahead of next week's mid-term budget, which will provide insight into the health of Africa's most industrialized economy. At 0633 GMT, the rand traded at 18.9325 against the dollar, about 0.2% stronger than its previous close. The rand has had a turbulent week, taking the lead in global factors such as US economic data, with the few national economic data relegated

For its part, the yen was regaining ground against the dollar, due to expectations of Japanese intervention, according to analysts. For Ulrich Leuchtmann, an analyst at Commerzbank, the fact that the dollar against the yen “has been trading at or near the $150 'danger zone' for so long,” means that the rate would in fact be “much higher” if it weren't for the fear

Par ailleurs, le Russian ruble topped 94 to the dollar on Friday, abandoning some of this week's significant gains, as the market looks to the central bank meeting, during which it is generally expected to rise again interest rates due to continuing inflation pressure. At 0805 GMT, the ruble was 0.3% weaker against the dollar at 94.19, moving away from 92.7350, its strongest point since September 12, reached on Wednesday. It remained unchanged at 99.56 against the euro and lost 0.5% against the yuan