The pound rose on Friday

The pound rose on Friday to a paper report the U.K. government is considering some kind of regulatory divergence between Northern Ireland that the U.K. in an endeavor to procure a Brexit deal.

According to The Times, Northern Ireland's DUP will be inclined to take some EU regulations after a U.K. withdrawal in the EU -- substituting the Irish backstop proposal -- increasing some hopes of a fresh thing. However, the DUP denied that the report soon later.

GBP/USD jumped 0.8percent to 1.2431 as of 10:35 AM ET (14:35 GMT) as traders chose to maneuver from short positions on sterling after the report.

The euro inched upward, with EUR/USD increasing 0.1percent to 1.1071.

Elsewhere, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback's power from a basket of six main currencies, dropped 0.1percent to 98.243 as hopes of a commerce truce between the U.S. and China lead into some safe-haven selloff.

Both sides have made conciliatory gestures before planned trade discussions in the forthcoming weeks.

The Japanese yen, which can be viewed as a safe refuge in times of market turmoil, was an apartment with USD/JPY in 108.11.