07:38 AM EDT, 03/22/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The US dollar rose against its major trading partners early Friday, except for a decline versus the yen, ahead of a series of appearances by Federal Reserve officials that compensate for a lack of major US data.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is scheduled to make opening remarks at a Fed Listens conference at 9:00 am ET, followed by appearances by Fed Governor Michelle Bowman and Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson at the same event.

Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr is set to speak at 12:15 pm ET, with Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic, a voter on the policy setting Federal Open Market Committee this year, speaking later in the day at 4:00 pm ET.

The data schedule is light Friday after a busy Thursday, with state-level unemployment data for February released at 10:00 am ET and the St. Louis Fed's weekly gross domestic product Nowcast estimate for Q1 released sometime midday.

A quick summary of foreign exchange activity heading into Friday:

EUR-USD fell to 1.0816 from 1.0860 at the Thursday US close and 1.0920 at the same time Thursday morning. There are no Eurozone data on Friday's schedule, but European Central Bank policy board member Philip Lane is set to speak at 1:00 pm ET. The next ECB meeting is scheduled for April 11.

GBP-USD fell to 1.2584 from 1.2658 at the Thursday US close and 1.2767 at the same time Thursday morning. The Bank of England held its policy rate steady at 5.25% Thursday, as expected, citing slowing but still heightened inflation pressures. BoE Governor Andrew Bailey said inflation is "moving in the right direction." The next BoE meeting is scheduled for May 9. UK retail sales were flat in February and were up slightly excluding auto sales and fuel, much slower growth than in January pulling down the year-over-year rates, data released earlier Friday showed.

USD-JPY fell to 151.5689 from 151.6338 at the Thursday US close but was up from a level of 151.1062 at the same time Thursday morning. Japanese consumer prices were flat in February, data released overnight showed, but the year-over-year rates for both overall and core prices jumped from the previous month. The next Bank of Japan meeting is scheduled for April 25-26.

USD-CAD rose to 1.3579 from 1.3531 at the Thursday US close and 1.3496 at the same time Thursday morning. Canadian retail sales for January are due to be released at 8:30 am ET, followed by the Canadian budget balance for January at 11:00 am ET. The next Bank of Canada meeting is set for April 10.