The dollar rose on tensions over Ukraine

The dollar climbed with the yen and the Swiss franc. It occurred as investors rushed into safe-haven assets because of fears that Russia might invade Ukraine.

The move came after the United States said Putin could attack Ukraine at any moment. Russia denied having such plans while a senior official was ready to fire on foreign ships and submarines that illegally entered its waters.

The dollar index increased 0.5% to 96.352, its highest since the beginning of February, at 1133 GMT.

Euro-dollar one-month volatility was at 7.46%, the highest since December 2020, from below 7% at the end of January.

On Friday, investors ditched Russian assets; the rouble was flat at 77.09 against the dollar after falling to its lowest since January 28.

Overview of the dollar and other currencies

Commerzbank analysts warned that European economies heavily depend on Russian energy. In their opinion, it seems easy to mitigate the geopolitical situation in Ukraine. They said that a prolonged outage of Russian gas supplies would damage the European economy. It would make the current cyclical recessionary trend in the eurozone even more pronounced.

The reason is that about half of the gas used in the EU comes from Russia, and a disruption in this supply chain would have a significant negative impact on the EU economy. However, it is still unclear how long the current supply disruption will continue. Commerzbank doubts whether it is even a permanent reduction in supply.

The Swiss franc increased 0.6% against the euro to 1.0452, its highest since the beginning of February 3. Riskier currencies such as Australian and New Zealand dollars dropped 0.7% and 0.8%.

The Swedish crown lost 1% versus the greenback to $9.4213, its lowest level since January 29. A divided central bank in Sweden did not change policy plans on Thursday.

The Norwegian crown fell 0.9% against the dollar to 8.9512, its weakest level since the end of January, while Brent crude futures steadied after hitting their highest since October 2014. In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin was down 0.9% at around $42,230.

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