US Dollar consolidates gains as focus on geopolitics

Growing expectations for a delay in the Federal Reserve’s policy pivot and escalating geopolitical tensions, fuelled an impressive US Dollar rally last week.

After rising over 1.5% in the previous week and touching its highest level since early November, the USD Index is in a consolidation phase at around 106.00 early Monday.

NY Empire State Manufacturing Index and Retail Sales data will be featured in the US economic docket.

Over the weekend, Iran launched an assault with dozens of drones in retaliation to the suspected Israeli attack on Iran’s consulate in Damascus on 1 April.

“Iran, if necessary, will not hesitate to take further defensive measures to safeguard its legitimate interests against any military aggressions and unlawful use of force,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned Iran’s drone attacks targeting Israel as a “serious escalation” and called on all sides to show restraint to avoid a devastating regional conflagration.

Following Friday’s sharp decline on Wall Street, US stock index futures trade modestly higher to start the new week.

Gold opened higher and advanced above $2,370 in early Asian trading before retreating below $2,360 by the European morning.

EURUSD suffered heavy losses on Friday and broke below 1.0700. The pair seems to have stabilised at around 1.0650 in the early European session. Eurostat will release Industrial Production data for February later in the day.

GBPUSD lost 1.5% last week and registered its largest one-week decline since July. The pair stays relatively quiet below 1.2500 on Monday.

Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki repeated on Monday that he is “watching FX moves closely,” adding that he wants to be fully-prepared when asked about the broad Yen weakness.

USDJPY closed the previous week decisively higher and continued to push higher early Monday when the pair was trading at its highest level in over three decades near 154.00.

(Source: OANDA)