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The US dollar ran out of its range

The US dollar has overtaken its trading line from the past nine weeks to a basket of currencies.
Nevertheless, green money recorded its best weekly performance since November 2016.
For the week, the dollar index added 1.41%, ending at 91.343 points.
The main catalyst behind the rise of the dollar was the rise in interest rates on 10-year US bonds. They passed the 3% levels for the first time in more than four years. Investors have shrunk their positions in US bonds as a result of fears about rising inflation and the prospects for further interest rates.
In the rest of the news, consumer confidence rose to 128.7 points, exceeding analysts' average expectations, while orders on durable goods grew to 2.6% or against the previous reporting period.
The US GDP also turned out to be above average expectations at 2.3%. Investors, however, continue to worry about the poor performance of consumer spending.
Another major reason for the appreciation of the US dollar against other major currencies was the difference in the Fed's expected policy and other banks around the world that would most likely not be as aggressive to interest rates.

The ECB kept interest rates unchanged

The ECB kept the interest rate unchanged by continuing to maintain its position on a smooth exit from the monetary stimulus.
The bank has confirmed that it will continue to buyback 30 billion euros a month at least until the end of September.
The ECB continues to believe that the best moment to start raising interest rates will be after the potential end of the asset repurchase program.
The ECB's decision became a fact, a day after Draghi confessed to the IMF that there is some slowdown in the growth of the eurozone, but overall growth will continue in the future.
Now, the question everyone is asking is if Draghi's acknowledgment will lead to a change in the ECB's policy towards a smooth exit from the stimulus program.
Inflation in the euro area continues to be weak, expected to rise 1.3% in March, against previous expectations of 1.4%.

Facebook beats expectations, supports US indices

All eyes were on Facebook yesterday, because of the company's upcoming results. And they proved better than expected, in light of the recent scandals related to the company.
The largest social network in the world, reported a profit of $1.69 per share, with revenue of $11.97 billion. For comparison, analysts' average expectations were for a profit of $1.35 per share and a $11.4 billion income for the quarter.
Facebook reported 2.2 billion active users per month, which was also slightly above analysts' average expectations of 2.19 billion users and 1.45 billion active users a day, up from 1.4 billion a month earlier.
The company's shares reacted extremely positively to the data, rising by more than $11.

Bitcoin cash is under the spotlight

The bitcoin cash rose 17% on the first day of the new week, in addition to the extraordinary growth of cryptocurrency from previous weeks. Thus, the bitcoin cash has already been up by more than 80% in the past few weeks, making it the best performer among the main cryptocurrencies.
The cryptocurrency, which is formed after a "difficult fork" in the bitcoin in August last year, is one of the fastest recoverable cryptocurrencies since the beginning of the year.
What caused the strong appreciation of the bitcoin cash?
This is most likely the anticipated new "difficult fork" in the cryptocurrency, which aims to increase the computing power of the bitcoin cash, increasing the size of the blocks being processed.
The bitcoin goes to a difficult fork on May 15th, which is expected to increase the maximum size of the 8MB block to 32MB, while removing the SegWit protocol, according Matti Greenspan, an eToro analyst.
However, those who expect to receive a dividend or new coins may be disappointed, the analyst warned. If everything goes smoothly, the new coin, which will be created after the fork, is expected to completely replace the old coin. There may be some players who will try to keep the old coin "alive", the expert says.

Kuroda: Potential withdrawal of incentives to accelerate inflation

Japan's central bank may remove current stimulus for the economy in the form of redemption of bonds as soon as inflation reaches the target of 2%, said head of the financial institution Haruhiko Kuroda in an interview with CNBC.
This was the first stronger hint of ending the record-breaking stimulus in the Japanese economy and a testimony to the good development of the world's third-largest economy. Kuroda also talks about current issues, such as the danger of a war on trade and the manipulation of foreign exchange markets.
According to the head of the Japanese central bank, target inflation of 2% will be reached within the next five years. Then a discussion of a gradual decrease in current incentives will begin.
According to latest data, inflation in Japan is at a level of 0.5% on an annual basis until March.
Japan has the biggest monetary incentives among the world's leading developed countries at the moment. Experts also predict the bank is one of the last to remove its monetary incentives.

US dollar with weekly growth against all major currencies

Over the past week, we have witnessed something that is happening relatively rarely - the dollar has appreciated against all major currencies.
A major part of the appreciation of green money relative to other currencies was predetermined by the rise in interest rates on US bonds, to which the dollar is extremely dependent.
Investors have renewed expectations for further interest rates to be raised by the Fed during the year. The rising demand for more risky assets, on the other hand, has led to further strength for the US currency.
For the last week, the dollar index ended at 90.075 points, or an increase of 0.64%.
Late last week, Fed officials hinted at a further gradual rise in interest rates based on strong economic growth figures.
Fed San Francisco head John Williams said that inflation will rise this year to Fed targets of 2% and will remain above those targets a few years.
In order to protect the US economy from overheating, it is necessary for the Fed to continue raising interest rates, Williams said.
On the other hand, the leader of the Chicago Fed, Charles Evans, said it might be more appropriate to raise interest rates gradually.

Saudi Arabia wants an oil price of $100

Saudi Arabia oil minister Khalid al-Falih and Russian energy minister Alexander Novak participated in a joint conference in Riyadh.
It became clear that the leading oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, would have been happy with a rise in the price of oil to 80, and why not even to $100 a barrel. This was accepted by investors and analysts as a sign that we will not see a change in OPEC's production constraints soon.
OPEC, together with Russia and several other leading manufacturers, began to jointly reduce oil production in January 2017 in an attempt to stabilize the cost of raw materials. They extended their agreement by the end of this year.
Recently, however, speculation is increasingly becoming among oil analysts that these measures will continue next year.
Over the past year, Saudi Arabia has become one of the main supporters of restrictive measures in the industry that will lead to a rise in the price of oil.

The bitcoin received a rising impulse from the IMF

The largest digital currency in the world - the bitcoin, received some support from the International Monetary Fund and rose above the psychological limit of $ 8,000 on Tuesday.
The cost of the bitcoin rose 1.3 percent to $8,109, with its lowest daily value at $7,972.55 per coin.
Surprising support came not by anyone, but by IMF chief Christine Lagarde. She said late on Monday that the IMF sees the positive influence of the bitcoin and blockchain technology.
This was, to a large extent, a surprise, given Lagard's previous comments on the bitcoin.
In fact, Lagarde is quite inconsistent in its position with regard to the cryptocurrencies.
Global digital currency may be a future option for the IMF. This was stated by the head of the fund, Christine Lagarde, during the forum organized by the English Central Bank last October. Lagarde hinted at the development of the cryptocurrency, which would be used for special rights issued by the IMF.
These currencies can displace the reserve currencies used by the Fund.
The IMF has already begun exploring the possibilities of creating its own cryptocurrency with external consultants. Lagarde commented that replacing current reserve currencies with IMF's own cryptocurrency is not so much a far-fetched opportunity.
The IMF cryptocurrency may seriously endanger the domination of major reserve currencies, market forecasters predict.
According to experts, the creation of such a cryptocurrency could be backed by countries like China who would like to reduce the impact of the US currency as a reserve one.

Deutsche Bank: Inflation is the biggest threat at the moment

Forget the geopolitical tensions, the strikes in Syria, or the trade wars between the US and China. You have a much greater reason to worry if you invest in stock markets. This is warned by the experts of the leading German bank - Deutsche Bank.
Traditional inflation measures in the US show a sustained rise in consumer price inflation in recent months, following an anemic price increase nearly a decade after the end of the recent financial crisis.
At a time when the Fed has steadily upgraded the economy and the economy is recovering at an unsatisfactory pace, uncertainty has conquered inflation, which is the focus of almost all investors.
We are waiting for inflation, literally over the last nine years - since the end of the recession in 2009. Maybe you will ask yourself the question - Why is it now? We have not seen inflation over the past few years, so what has changed today? - commented experts.
And the answer to this question can be found in the weak US dollar. The dollar index was moving at a 90-point high for most of this year after falling freely over the past year.
This was a natural consequence of fiscal expansion over the last decade, which has led to a overheating of the US economy, a narrow labor market and price pressures, in light of a possible trade war between the US and China.
Expectations for higher inflation are consistent with consensus expectations. About 82% of fund managers, gave their opinion in a Bank of America poll earlier this month, expect inflation to accelerate next year. This is just below the pre-crisis levels of 86%.
According to the Labor Ministry, consumer prices have risen 2.4% y/y last month, or their fastest growth in 12 months. By abolishing volatile food and fuel prices, inflation stood at 2.1%.