10:27 AM EDT, 05/17/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The US dollar continued to pare prior gains over most major currencies in early North American trade on Friday after the Conference Board's Leading Economic Index fell further than was expected for the month of April.

Conference Board's Leading Index fell 0.6% in April, deepening the 0.3% decline seen in March while undershooting the consensus, which had looked for another 0.3% fall.

The index offers a combined reading of 10 indicators covering employment, new orders, consumer confidence, credit trends and interest rate spreads, among other things. It aims to provide an early indication of significant turning points in the US economy and has been negative for most of the months since January 2022.

Consumers' deteriorating outlook for business conditions, weak new orders, a negative yield spread, and a drop in new building permits were all cited as contributing to April's decline. Stock prices also contributed negatively for the first time since October.

EUR/USD and GBP/USD both continued to pare losses following the release and were last seen at 1.0858 and 1.2677 respectively. Meanwhile, USD/CAD and USD/JPY both continued to pare intraday gains and were last seen at 1.3613 and 155.64 respectively.