07:18 AM EDT, 04/18/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Many US dollar pairs extended earlier corrective losses during the European morning on Thursday as the Swedish krona and Korean won led a rebound of G20 currencies going into a busy schedule of central bank speakers.

Dollar gains were few and far between with the Japanese yen, Norwegian krone, Chinese renminbi, South African rand and Russian ruble featuring as the only G20 currencies ceding ground to the greenback in early European trade.

All other G20 currencies built further on prior gains with the won and the krona leading the charge amid speculation about possible Korean government intervention to support its currency, and after a Riksbank deputy governor indicated that some recent global developments could moderate the bank's appetite for interest rate cuts.

Dollar losses date back to Wednesday's trading session when comments from European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Bank of Portugal Governor Mario Centeno called into question earlier market assumptions about the likely scale of widely expected ECB interest rate cuts late in the session.

Centeno said "several" cuts are possible this year and that monetary policy would remain tight even after a 25 basis point or 50 basis point reduction for benchmark interest rates.

Highlights for the Thursday session ahead include a roster of Federal Reserve speakers, comments from German Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel and the weekly unemployment claims report from the US.

A quick summary of foreign exchange activity heading into the US open:

EUR/USD was trading 0.03% higher at 1.0672 after moderating from a morning high of 1.0690 when the Euro area current account surplus came in lower than was expected for February. The surplus was 29.5 billion euros, down from 39.3 billion euros and below the 45.2 billion euros consensus reported by multiple data vendors. Attention now turns to ECB executive board member Isabel Schnabel, who speaks at 11:45 ET on Thursday.

GBP/USD was 0.19% higher at 1.2480 after moderating from 1.2485 around the London open and following a brief period of underperformance late in Wednesday's session. There was no data released in the UK Thursday and none is expected ahead of Friday's March retail sales report though sterling appeared to be affected by comments from Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey late on Wednesday.

Bailey told the Institute of International Finance Global Outlook Forum that the inflationary effect of Middle Eastern instability has been less than feared and that the UK economy remains on track with February's forecasts even after Wednesday's data showed inflation falling less than was expected in March. February's forecasts were conditioned on the then-market assumption that rates would fall from 5.25% to 3.25% over the projection period with cuts beginning in May or June.

USD/JPY traded 0.07% higher at 154.41 on Thursday, up from an intraday low of 153.95 seen on Wednesday, after the yen appeared to overlook a Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry report suggesting tertiary industry activity rose 1.5% in February, an improvement on the 0.5% fall in January and ahead of the consensus for a 0.4% increase.

The Japanese currency did not benefit much or for long when finance ministers of Japan, South Korea and the US released a joint statement expressing concern about recently sharp losses of the yen and won. The yen also appeared to overlook remarks from Vice Finance Minister for International Affairs Masato Kanda, who reportedly said "whether this involves currency intervention or not, we authorities are prepared for all situations all of the time."

USD/CAD, meanwhile, was trading 0.10% lower at 1.3758 after trading as low as 1.3741 earlier in the session. USD/CAD was down from the intraday high of 1.3838 seen previously in Wednesday's trading session. Thursday's price action placed the Canadian dollar around the middle of the G10 rankings for the session amid a dearth of Canadian economic data and newsflow.