The dollar scaled to a fresh one-month high

Good Morning,

- The dollar scaled to a fresh one-month high. The dollar index last traded at 97 level after reaching a one-month high of 97.20, as Fed’s Yellen last Friday’s comments are still on hot… and euro under new pressures on Greece case..

- Asian shares turned higher, reversing earlier losses on the back of gains in Hong Kong and China.

- In a highly anticipated speech on Friday, Yellen made clear the central bank was poised to raise interest rates this year. She said recent softness in economic data was largely due to "transitory factors" including a harsh winter and labour disputes on West Coast ports.

- Fed Vice Chair Stanley Fischer on Monday said the process of returning to more normal levels of interest rates will take a few years.

- The Greek government, still trying to reach an agreement with its lenders to unlock fresh loans, weighed on the euro by saying it needed aid urgently in order to make good on its debt obligations.

- Greek officials will use Tuesday to revive their bid to access financial aid with their finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, blaming creditors’ insistence on more austerity for the impasse. While Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis said Monday that a deal can be reached by the end of May, he admitted that disagreements remain in areas such as budget targets, sales-tax rates, pension and labor market rules.

- Time is running out for Greece to reach an agreement on reform with lenders and there will be no further funds for Athens without it, the head of the European Stability Mechanism, Klaus Regling, told Germany's Bild newspaper on Tuesday.

- BNP Paribas on EUR/USD: The return of full trading conditions on Tuesday could make EUR/USD vulnerable to further immediate downside as European traders digest Chair Yellen’s remarks delivered late on Friday in the US, says BNP Paribas. "European data in the week is likely to show some loss of momentum in the European Commission’s sentiment indicator but the main focus will remain on European bond markets after the ECB announced it will front load its asset purchases," BNPP projects. "Greek uncertainty remains a lingering risk but we don’t expect significant market impact unless there is a major breakdown in talks," BNPP adds.

- Switzerland may have managed to avoid a contraction in the first quarter, temporarily defying a record surge by the franc that’s depressed the outlook for the economy. Gross domestic product probably stagnated in the three months through March, according to the median estimate of 16 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. While that ends more than three years of quarterly expansion, it’s not the contraction feared after the Swiss National Bank scrapped its currency cap. The gloomier outlook is the price the nation is paying for its SNB’s policy reversal in January.

- The dollar hit to 122.75 yen, breaking above the 122 level for the first time since March 10 and reaching an eight-year peak.

- Crude oil prices edged down on Tuesday, with their recent rally pressured by a stronger U.S. dollar and the possibility of rising U.S. shale output.

Have a nice Day!