US Dollar: Ultimate Safe Haven, Non-Farm Payrolls Take Back Seat

BlockBeats News, March 7th, the dollar is experiencing its best week in over a year, strengthening as the ultimate safe haven amid the Middle East conflict and surging oil prices. As of press time, the spot dollar index has risen by 1.5% this week, marking the largest gain since the end of 2024.

Hostile actions are disrupting oil production and shipping, intensifying inflation concerns for the Fed and other central banks. This has led traders to scale back bets on a Fed rate cut, further boosting the dollar. Making the economic backdrop more complex, a report on Friday showed U.S. employers cut positions unexpectedly last month.

However, as the focus is mainly on energy prices, this data only briefly weighed on the dollar, which quickly resumed its upward momentum, with the 10-year benchmark bond yield climbing for the fifth consecutive day.

Alex Cohen, FX strategist at Bank of America, said: "In this environment, the market is seeing through the soft data as ongoing uncertainty and record-high oil prices are overwhelmingly the dominant driving forces." (FX168)