By Jiaxing Li
HONG KONG, April 2 (Reuters) – The dollar advanced against major currencies on Thursday, reversing two days of losses, after U.S. President Donald Trump’s address on Iran shattered hopes for a possible ceasefire in the Middle East conflict that has rattled investors and roiled markets.
In Trump’s national address, the president said conflict in Iran would soon be ending, but the U.S. military would continue to hit targets there over the next two to three weeks.
The dollar index, 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.
The greenback has benefited from a rush to safe-haven assets since the conflict began in late February. Expectations that a ceasefire could be near have reversed some of the markets’ most popular trades earlier this week and put the greenback on a two-day decline.
“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.
“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.
The euro stood at $1.1554 and the sterling fetched $1.3254, both down roughly 0.3% versus the dollar after the speech to give up some recent gains.
The risk-sensitive Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar were both down roughly 0.6%, trading at $0.68865 and $0.5719, respectively.
The Japanese yen traded weaker at 159.25, but it was still away from the psychologically important 160 level that is viewed as the line in the sand for intervention by Japanese authorities.
Now that the speech is over, attention will turn to Friday’s U.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.
A sharp deterioration in the labor market could revive expectations for rate cuts from the Federal Reserve this year, which have been largely priced out as sharply rising oil prices due to the Iran war have stoked inflation concerns.
(Reporting by Jiaxing Li in Hong Kong; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Thomas Derpinghaus)
