(New York) The dollar reversed trend and rallied on Friday, with the euro and pound blowing after hitting yearly highs this week.
Around 2:30 p.m., the greenback rallied 0.50% to $1.0991 per euro after falling to $1.1076, its lowest since early April 2022. During the week, the U.S. currency lost up to 1.50% against the euro.
Against the pound, the dollar regained 0.88% to 1.2413 dollars per pound after falling to 1.2546 dollars, the lowest since June 2022.
“It’s Friday and we’ve had some big moves this week, so now there’s an adjustment in positions,” suggested Marc Chandler, managing director of Bannockburn, Global Forex, recalling that the euro was coming off several weeks of strong gains. .
After signs of slowing US inflation, “the euro crossed the threshold of $1.10 to the euro, caught its breath and did not hold,” he commented.
On Friday in the United States, strong quarterly results from several major banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Citi, reinforced the idea that the mini bank panic of March was contained.
“The market seems more confident that the Federal Reserve (Fed) will raise interest rates again in early May,” Chandler said.
Even if we can expect dissension in the next decision of the Fed’s Monetary Committee, one of the governors of the institution, Christopher Waller, argued vigorously on Friday for one or more additional increases.
“The labor market remains strong and quite tight, and inflation is well above target, so monetary policy needs to be tightened further,” Waller said.
In addition, Christine Lagarde, the President of the European Central Bank (ECB), affirmed, in a speech at the spring meetings of the IMF in Washington, that inflation in the euro zone should “continue to fall”, which has somewhat lowers the European currency.
Separately, the second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, saw its token, Ether, gain 3.29% around 3 p.m. EST to $2,082.42, after climbing to a high since May. 2022 at $2129.40, following a smooth network update on Thursday.
