Russian Missile Strike on Ukraine Empowers the Dollar

The dollar rose in early European trade on Monday after Russia launched missile strikes on Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv, in response to the weekend attack on the Kerch bridge.

The dollar index measures the dollar versus a basket of six developed economy currencies. It was up 0.12% at 112.92 by 03:35 ET (07:35 GMT). Modest demand for “safe haven” assets drove the gain.

The missile assaults reportedly damaged the largest public park in Kyiv, Shevchenko Park, among other civilian objectives.

Outlook on the American Market

The U.S. labor market data for September, released on Friday, continued to boost the dollar. It indicated that employment was still expanding well and offered no significant support for expectations that the Fed’s cycle of interest rate hikes would soon come to a halt. However, the bond market was calm, with the Treasury yield curve’s short and long ends remaining unchanged from Friday’s closing.

The Bank of England said it would replace the emergency Gilt auctions it started after the new government’s badly welcomed “mini-budget” with a fresh set of loan operations. This put the pound in the spotlight for early trade. Since the mini-budget, the Bank has only used about 12% of the auctions’ capacity to control market volatility during their last week tightly. The Bank increased the daily limit. Therefore, the pound increased by 0.2% to $1.1103.