By Alun John

HONG KONG, (Reuters) – The dollar was more stable early Friday thanks to upbeat economic data. However, it was heading for its second week in declines. Commodities currencies fell as traders rejigged positions following this week’s brisk rally.

The dollar gained in Asian hour after gaining on Thursday due to better jobs, housing data, and higher U.S. Treasury yields.

Last week, the index was 93.736. This is an increase from its previous low of 93.494 a day earlier.

Thursday’s late gains saw broad-based gains with sterling, dollar and the euro losing ground against the greenback.

The dollar index has fallen 0.18% over the past week, and is expected to show a further decline for the second week.

Paul Mackel from HSBC’s global head for FX research, said that people are asking whether the US is at an inflection stage. The dollar is weakening is not consistent with the broader narrative of global growth cooling.

The yields on the benchmark U.S. Treasury 10-year note were at 1.6967% Friday, slightly below Thursday’s record of 1.7%.

According to analysts, the commodity currency rally saw a pause late on Thursday, and continued into Asian hours Friday as traders took profit.

Canadian dollars fell to C$1.2369 for every US dollar. This is down from Thursday’s C$1.2287 level, which was last seen in June.

The Australian dollar was also down, as it bought $0.7455 less than Thursday’s top of $3.30.

According to Westpac analysts, “China’s aggressive interventions in the coal markets have had a substantial impact on prices in this sector…so it shouldn’t surprise that there has been a moderate A$ correction since very overbought levels.”

On Thursday, he had reached a high of $86 per barrel. However, he fell later in the day to $84.66.

British pounds were at $1.3784. Also, this was lower than the month high reached earlier in week.

With the dollar at $1.1621 unchanged, while the Japanese yen slipped within reach of multi-year lows with one dollar equal to 114.07 yen. That’s a 4 year low.