{"id":809,"date":"2026-05-12T13:50:04","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T13:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/?p=809"},"modified":"2026-05-12T13:50:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T13:50:04","slug":"dollar-rises-but-still-not-far-from-pre-war-levels-data-awaited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/?p=809","title":{"rendered":"Dollar rises but still not far from pre-war levels, data awaited"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. dollar extended gains for a second straight session on Tuesday, underpinned by sustained uncertainty over the Middle East conflict that drove investors into the greenback as a traditional safe haven.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The greenback rose sharply in March as the currencies of oil-reliant economies such as Japan and the euro area were heavily sold after oil prices surged following Iran\u2019s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

It weakened again after April 7, the start of a ceasefire, which Donald Trump threatened on Monday to end, dismissing Iran\u2019s proposal as \u201ca piece of garbage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. dollar index, a measure of its value against a basket of major foreign currencies, was up 0.36% at 98.30. It was at 97.85 on February 27 and hit 100.64 in late March. It fell below its pre-war levels late last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears unlikely that a breakthrough would be achieved before the Trump-Xi summit later this week,\u201d said Mohit Kumar, an economist at Jefferies.<\/p>\n

Trump is expected to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday, where Iran is set to be among the topics discussed with Chinese President Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n

Crude oil price supporting dollar<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as crude oil prices stay high, because of the U.S.\u2019 blockade [of Iranian ports] and Iran\u2019s threat to tanker traffic in the Gulf, the dollar will stay strong,\u201d said Thierry Wizman, global forex and rates strategist at Macquarie Group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe toll that high oil prices will take on the rest of the world\u2019s economies will be much more pernicious than the toll [on] the U.S.,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Oil prices rose 3% on Tuesday as hopes for a deal to end the war on Iran faded.<\/p>\n

Wizman also argued that the U.S. administration has probably decided that its economic blockade of Iran \u2013 the \u2018economic war\u2019 \u2013 could be more effective than resuming bombing runs.<\/p>\n

Rate outlook in focus<\/strong><\/p>\n

Investors are also closely watching the monetary outlook, with the Federal Reserve now expected to keep rates higher for longer, while traders are betting that the European Central Bank will hike its depo rate to about 2.75% by year-end from the current 2%.<\/p>\n

The euro fell 0.33% to $1.1744.<\/p>\n

Eyes will be on a U.S. inflation report due later in the session, which is forecast to show that consumer prices rose 0.6% last month after jumping 0.9% in March, according to a Reuters survey of economists. Estimates ranged from a 0.4% gain to a 0.9% rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the likelihood of elevated inflation readings, the CPI on Tuesday and PPI on Wednesday, the case for eventual rate cuts this year looks increasingly difficult to sustain,\u201d said John Velis, head of Americas strategy at BNY.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last two weeks\u2019 worth of U.S. macro data showed an economy that is not yet feeling acute pressure from the shocks generated by the Iran conflict,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Yen still in intervention watch zone<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Japanese yen jumped suddenly in the late Asian session on Tuesday, stoking speculation of a \u201crate check\u201d, often a precursor to currency intervention.<\/p>\n

The dollar was last at 157.57 against the yen, up 0.21% on the day, after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he had great confidence that Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda will guide the central bank to a \u201cvery successful\u201d monetary policy.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s authorities have supposedly spent nearly $63.7 billion in the current round of interventions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. dollar extended gains for a second straight session on Tuesday, underpinned by sustained uncertainty over the Middle East conflict that drove investors into the greenback as a traditional safe haven. The greenback rose sharply in March as the currencies of oil-reliant economies such as Japan and the euro area were heavily sold after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}