The euro fell on Friday and was on track for a weekly loss against both the US dollar and the yen as a selloff in French government bonds pushed the country's debt risk premium to its highest level since the euro zone sovereign debt crisis in 2011, Reuters reported.

Source: Reuters via Euronext Live

France will deploy 70,000 police backed by specialist units for protests on Saturday, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said on Friday. Meanwhile, the country faces the threat of a rating downgrade by Moody's later on Friday, Reuters reported.

Source: Reuters via Euronext Live

A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point — yaani the 173.58-point premium means investors were charging France about 1.74 percentage points more interest than Germany on 10-year borrowing, the widest gap since November 2011, according to Thursday's Reuters bond report.

Source: Reuters via Euronext Live — French debt risk premium

"The pressure in the European bond market has eased today, but Moody's review of France's debt rating late today poses a challenge, and although the Macron government has threatened military assistance to quell the social unrest, more activity is likely this weekend," said Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex, as quoted by Reuters.

Source: Reuters via Euronext Live

TradingView's market report, also drawing on Friday's PMI and debt reporting, put the euro at $1.12 near multi-month lows, with French 10-year yields at fresh 24-year highs and the risk premium at levels last seen during the 2011 crisis, and said further demonstrations were expected this weekend ahead of next week's ECB meeting.

Source: TradingView News

The yen, meanwhile, strengthened 0.18% to 156.45 per dollar and was on track for a weekly gain of around 0.9%, its best week since early September, as it benefited from safe-haven flows after Thursday's selloff in artificial intelligence stocks, Reuters reported. The dollar index rose 0.13% to 101.70 but was headed for a weekly loss of 0.10%.

Source: Reuters via Euronext Live

Traders now turn to next week's policy meetings at the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan, all expected to leave rates unchanged. Traders see a 66% chance of an ECB hike in December and an 81% chance of a Fed hike in December, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters, while Friday's PMI data showed euro zone private-sector growth slowed in October to its weakest pace in four months, hurt by a renewed contraction in France.

Source: Reuters via Euronext Live