The general index of the US dollar is trading at its highest level since the sixth of January, at 104.40 levels, up by 0.40% this morning, Friday, the 17th of February, in the closing session of the week, heading to record weekly gains of more than 0.70% for the third consecutive week.

The US dollar receives support this week from the high market expectations of a stronger tightening of the US Federal Reserve in the coming period, after the slowdown in inflation, which came below market expectations by 6.4% in January, while the second side of inflation, represented by the producer price index, exceeded expectations for an increase of 0.7% in January. January

The statements of the members of the US Federal Reserve came in support of tightening monetary policy in a stronger way, as the President of the Federal Reserve in Philadelphia, Loretta Mester, said early this morning that she would have preferred to raise interest rates by 50 basis points in the March meeting, and indicated that the Fed still has a lot of work to do until inflation recedes.

On the other hand, the head of the Reserve Bank of St. Louis, James Bullard, indicated that he supported raising interest rates by 50 basis points in the February meeting instead of a quarter of a point, indicating that the battle against inflation is still long.

Futures expectations using the CME FEDWatch tool are now seeing an increase in interest rates by 50 basis points in the March meeting, by about 18%, compared to less than 10% before these statements, amid anticipation for the US Federal Reserve’s minutes next week, which will give a clearer picture to investors about what happened in the meeting.

In a related development, data released this morning from the United Kingdom showed that retail sales increased by 0.5% in January, after declining by 1.2% in December, while expectations were for a decline of 0.3%.

The Japanese yen is trading at its lowest level against the US dollar this year, at 134.80 levels this morning, declining by more than 350 points this week, with high market expectations that the new governor of the Bank, Ueda, will maintain the accommodative monetary policy for a longer period than market expectations.

On the other hand, the euro is trading at 1.0638 levels, while the sterling pound is trading at 1.1934 levels, its lowest level in six weeks.