NEW YORK — The US dollar advanced against major currencies, including the euro and yen, on Friday as markets grabbed safe-haven assets as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East following an Israeli attack on Iran.
Israel launched a barrage of strikes across Iran on Friday, attacking nuclear facilities and missile factories and killing a swath of military commanders. In retaliation, Iran’s state news agency IRNA said hundreds of ballistic missiles had been launched.
US President Donald Trump, Israel’s main ally, urged Iran to reach a deal on its nuclear program, suggesting that Tehran had brought the attack on itself by resisting a US ultimatum in talks to restrict its uranium enrichment.
In afternoon trading, the dollar gained 0.3 percent to 143.88 against the Japanese yen and rose 0.1 percent to 0.8110 franc against the Swiss currency, with the greenback on track to snap two straight sessions of losses against safe-haven currencies.
“Historically speaking with these kinds of geopolitical events, you get the knee jerk reaction from the market … History tells us to kind of look past a lot of this stuff,” said Jack Janasiewicz, portfolio manager, at Natixis Investment Managers in Boston.
“There’s a couple of things worth highlighting. How long does this operation go for? The longer this goes, obviously the worse it gets for confidence and that eventually will start to weigh on the market.”
The dollar is still poised for a weekly loss against both the yen and the franc, with markets worried about Trump’s tariffs. The greenback was down nearly 1 percent versus the yen, on track for its largest weekly fall since mid-May.
