The dollar advanced against major currencies on Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump’s address on Iran shattered hopes for a ceasefire in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Yaorusheng | Moment | Getty Images<\/p>\n
The dollar advanced against major currencies on\u00a0Thursday,\u00a0reversing two days of losses,\u00a0after\u00a0U.S. President Donald Trump’s address on Iran shattered hopes for a\u00a0possible ceasefire in the\u00a0Middle East conflict that has rattled investors and roiled markets.<\/p>\n
In Trump’s\u00a0national address, the president said conflict in Iran\u00a0would soon be ending, but the U.S. military would continue to hit targets there over the next two to three weeks.<\/p>\n
The dollar index<\/a>, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, climbed to a high of 99.925 after the speech. It last traded up 0.3% at 99.861.<\/p>\n The\u00a0greenback has\u00a0benefited from a\u00a0rush to safe-haven\u00a0assets\u00a0since the conflict began in late February. Expectations that a ceasefire could be near have reversed some of the markets’ most popular trades earlier\u00a0this week\u00a0and put the greenback on a two-day decline.<\/p>\n “Trump’s comments failed to reassure markets … markets are starting to realize that the war will probably escalate further from here before de-escalating,” said Carol Kong, a currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.<\/p>\n “The dollar can definitely increase further from here against all the major currencies” as markets wake up to the fact that the global economy will just slow down materially from here, she added.<\/p>\n The euro<\/a> stood at $1.1554\u00a0and the sterling<\/a> fetched $1.3254, both down roughly 0.3%\u00a0versus the dollar\u00a0after the speech to give up some\u00a0recent gains.<\/p>\n The\u00a0risk-sensitive\u00a0Australian dollar<\/a>\u00a0and the New Zealand dollar<\/a>\u00a0were both down roughly 0.6%, trading at $0.68865\u00a0and $0.5719, respectively.<\/p>\n The Japanese yen<\/a> traded\u00a0weaker at\u00a0$159.25,\u00a0but it was still\u00a0away from the psychologically important 160 level\u00a0that is viewed\u00a0as the line in the sand for intervention by Japanese authorities.<\/p>\n Now that the speech is over,\u00a0attention will turn to Friday’s\u00a0U.S. non-farm payrolls report. The market is looking for a 60,000 rise in jobs for March, according to the median estimate of economists polled by Reuters.<\/p>\n A sharp deterioration in the labor market could revive expectations for rate cuts from the Federal Reserve<\/a> this year, which have been largely priced out as sharply rising oil prices\u00a0due to the\u00a0Iran war\u00a0have stoked\u00a0inflation concerns.<\/p>\n