In the currency market, the dollar continued to backtrack after its recent runup against the euro. Late Friday, the euro was trading at $1.5473 vs. $1.5396 on Thursday.

“The dollar rallied marginally in morning New York trade, as a narrower than expected March trade deficit supported the unit,” wrote currency strategists at Action Economics. “New record high oil prices, along with a fairly severe sell-off in U.S. equities, however, saw the greenback give back its gains in afternoon trade, and into the weekend.”

The Commerce Department reported both imports and exports fell sharply in March, pushing the U.S. trade deficit down to $58.2 billion. Inflation-adjusted, the nation’s real trade gap for March was the lowest since November 2003.

The import/export data bucked some firm trends. Nominal imports plummeted 2.9% to $206.7 billion, marking the largest decline in more than six years, and in the face of record oil prices. Nominal exports fell by 1.7% to $148.5 billion, the biggest drop in nearly three years, in spite of higher prices for U.S. farm products.