Investors dash into the US dollar

The value of the US dollar has soared as investors pile in. The euro has hit parity, while the Japanese yen and the Swedish krona have fared even worse.

Ukrainian policeman standing among rubble
The worst geopolitical crisis in Europe since 1945 has helped propel the dollar to a two-decade high against the euro
(Image credit: © Andriy Dubchak / dia images via Getty Images)

Recession in the eurozone is priced in,” say analysts at Japanese banking giant Mizuho. On Tuesday the euro slumped to parity with the US dollar – the lowest the euro has traded against the US currency since 2002. The selloff followed growing concern that the shutdown of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline to Germany for annual maintenance could turn into a more permanent closure.

“The ECB [European Central Bank] is fiddling while the currency burns,” Neil Wilson of Markets.com told Julia Kollewe and Graeme Wearden in The Guardian. “Inflation above 8% and interest rates remain negative … it’s madness.”

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.