The GBP/USD pair rallied over 100 pips from daily swing lows and jumped to the 1.2940 region during the early European session, albeit quickly retreated few pips thereafter. EUR/USD extends the erratic performance in the last sessions, although it manages well to keep business above 1.17 the figure for the time being. The dollar pushed higher in early European trade Friday, along with the Japanese yen, as U.S. President Donald Trump testing positive for the Covid-19 virus hit risk sentiment, resulted in demand for safe haven currencies. The dollar index was up 0.1% at 93.797, while USD/JPY fell 0.4% to 105.11, its lowest level this week. President Trump confirmed, via a tweet, that he and his wife Melania had contracted the Covid-19 virus, just a few hours after a top aide he had spent substantial time with this week had also tested positive. However, he continues to work as normal from the White House.  DAX in Germany traded 0.8% lower, the CAC 40 in France fell 0.8% and the U.K.’s FTSE index dropped 0.7%. S&P 500 futures were down 1% . Futures for the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.2% (NQc1). The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 49 countries, was down 0.2% at 0736 GMT (MIWD00000PUS).  Equinor ASA (OL:EQNR) stock fell 0.5% after the Norwegian oil and gas firm outlined plans to cut its exploration staff by about 30% globally by 2023 to reduce costs as the pandemic hits the industry hard. Shares in many of the oil majors have slumped, with BP (LON:BP), Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSa) and Repsol (OTC:REPYY) all hitting 52-week lows in early trading. By contrast, renewables specialist Orsted (OTC:DOGEF) and wind turbine maker Siemens Gamesa  (MC:SGREN) hit new all-time highs. Rolls-Royce (LON:RR) slumped 6.8% after the aero engine maker’s 5 billion pound recapitalization plan. U.S. crude futures traded 2.4% lower at $37.80 a barrel, while the international benchmark Brent contract fell 2.7% to $39.83. Both contracts fell more than 3% Thursday, and are on course for a second consecutive week of declines. Gold futures fell 0.1% to $1,915.70/oz.