Dollar rises on hopes for Trump tax reform

       The dollar briefly fell to a session low of 112.87 yen during the Trump-Abe news conference. The dollar index was still set to post its best weekly percentage gain since mid-December, of 0.9 percent.
The U.S. dollar hovered near its highest level against a basket of major rivals in 11 days on Friday after comments from U.S. President Donald Trump did little to shake optimism that his administration would reform tax policy soon.The euro was last down 0.2 percent against the dollar at $1.0631, near a more than three-week low of $1.0608 touched before the Trump-Abe news conference. The dollar was up about 0.2 percent against the yen at 113.40 yen, not far from a nine-day high of 113.85 yen touched earlier.

         Trump did not reiterate his recent accusation that Japan was one of several countries devaluing their currencies to the disadvantage of the United States, but said in reference to currency devaluations that countries would be at a level playing field soon.

           Despite briefly turning negative during the news conference, the dollar index was last up about 0.2 percent at 100.800 , roughly unchanged from where it was before the conference and near an 11-day high of 101.010 struck in morning U.S. trading. The index measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies.Analysts said an announcement that Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo would resign from the U.S. central bank opened the door for Trump to choose a more hawkish replacement, and may have been positive for the dollar on the margin.