The GBP/USD pair held on to its modest gains around the 1.2800 region and had a rather muted reaction to the UK macro data dump, after falling into the 1.2775-70 area last night. The pair managed to gain some positive traction on the last trading day of the week and recovered a part of the previous day’s steep decline of over 250 pips. It is worth recalling that the GBP/USD pair on Thursday witnessed a dramatic turnaround from the 1.3035 region and nosedived to sub-1.2800 levels, or seven-week lows. EUR/USD is up for the third consecutive session on Friday, extending the rebound from lows in the 1.1750 region recorded earlier in the week. The pair managed to briefly surpass the key 1.19 barrier following the unexpected upbeat message from the ECB yesterday. Dollar Index was down 0.1% at 93.285, the USD/JPY pair inched up 0.02% to 106.16. In other markets, DAX in Germany traded 0.2% lower, the CAC 40 in France dropped 0.1% and the U.K.’s FTSE index was up 0.1%. Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) stock rose 0.3% after announcing that chief executive Jean-Sébastien Jacques, who has led the mining giant since 2016, will step down after the company destroyed an Aboriginal heritage site in Australia while developing a new mine. Swiss frozen baked goods maker Aryzta (SIX:ARYN) jumped 11% after it said it was in advanced talks with private equity firm Elliott Advisors over a takeover deal. French telecoms company Altice NV (AS:ATCA) surged 26% as its founder Patrick Drahi moved to take it private after an alarming stock slump this year. U.S. crude futures traded 0.1% lower at $37.27 a barrel, while the international benchmark Brent contract fell 0.3% to $39.96. Both major benchmarks are down around 6.5% for the week and headed for a second week of declines. Gold futures fell 0.7% to $1,951.15/oz.