Dollar holds gains as war widens in Middle East, rallies against yen

LONDON/SYDNEY :The dollar held on to its biggest gains in a week on Wednesday after an Iranian missile attack on Israel drove the buying of safe haven assets as investors fretted about the widening of conflict in the Middle East.
It also jumped against the yen as Japanese officials, including new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, talked down the chances of another Bank of Japan rate hike.
The euro was little changed against the dollar at $1.1069, following its largest drop in nearly four months on Tuesday at 0.6 per cent.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the currency against a basket of peers, was also steady at 101.32 after rising 0.5 per cent on Tuesday.
Iran said on Wednesday its missile attack on Israel, its biggest military assault on the Jewish state, was over, barring further provocation, while Israel and the United States said they would retaliate against Tehran.
Israel said Iran fired more than 180 ballistic missiles and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said the attack was retaliation for Israeli killings of militant leaders and aggression in Lebanon against the Iran-backed armed movement Hezbollah.
The markets’ response to the Middle East tensions thus far has centred on oil prices.
“The oil price does appear to be where the market is taking its steer from (but) even now Brent (crude oil) is still at $75 a barrel, and that’s far lower than what it was before the summer,” Jane Foley, head of FX strategy at Rabobank, said.
“It is still obviously a primary source of concern. And the market will certainly be keeping one eye on that and one eye on the Fed and the U.S. economy as well.”
In Japan, the dollar was last up 0.77 per cent against the yen at 144.71 yen per dollar.
Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda avoided repeating the central bank’s pledge to keep raising rates in a speech and focused on the risks facing the economy.
After a meeting with Ueda, new PM Ishiba said Japan is not in an environment for an additional interest rate hike, causing the yen to fall further.
Elsewhere, the safe haven Swiss franc fell around 0.2 per cent to 0.8435 per dollar, after it reversed its morning losses to rise slightly on Tuesday.
Sterling was little changed at $1.3281 after dropping 0.67 per cent the previous day.
The euro’s fall on Tuesday was also driven by increased bets that the European Central Bank will cut interest rates in October, after data showed euro zone inflation fell more than expected to 1.8 per cent in September.
The dollar’s rise was helped by a stronger-than-expected reading on U.S. job openings.
The focus turns to U.S. private payrolls data due later on Wednesday, with traders also monitoring a dispute at U.S. ports. The most important data point of the week is the U.S. employment report for September on Friday.
East and Gulf Coast dockworkers began their first large-scale strike in nearly 50 years on Tuesday, halting the flow of about half the country’s ocean shipping.
Vice Presidential candidates J.D. Vance and Tim Walz squared off in a nationally televised debate on Tuesday, which was largely civil and was met with muted market response.