Markets take a breather, the FOREX ends the week calmly, the '$-Index ends the week on a note of quasi-stability, clawing back 0.05% to 106.20 and gaining 0.15% over the week, which is insignificant.

Last night's launch of Israeli drones against military targets in Iran had caused a great deal of stress (Tokyo lost up to -4%, the VIX soared above 21, and oil climbed to $90.75 a barrel on Brent).

But the "immediate and massive retaliation" promised by Teheran failed to materialize, as the media tried to play down the affair (including Iranian officials who spoke of a cyber-attack), China and the United States call for calm (which is very different from expressing 'condemnation' of one or the other protagonist) and everything seems to be unfolding as it did last Sunday, with the 2 camps (Iran or Israel/United States) trying to play down the incident, and the Western media being more than discreet about this 'incident' (which constitutes a real 'casus belli').

The Dollar only played its role of refuge in the first few hours, but did not get above 1.0675 against the Euro, which fell back to 1.0645, a symbolic gain of +0.05%.
The most volatile currency of the day was the Pound, which fell by -0.4% and is now trading at around 1.2385 against the $ (UK rates eased significantly at the end of the day).
Without the Pound's fall, the $-Index would have ended in the red, as the Swiss Franc gained 0.25% to 0.9100 and the Canadian $ +0.15%.

And the greenback is not the only one to have eased over the hours: the VIX fell from 21 to 18.80, and Brent crude oil fell back below $87.5.

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