Dollar Advances. US Economy or Flight to Safety?

Last week Federal Reserve vice-chairman Donald Kohn expressed question about rates falling anytime soon. Then Friday payrolls numbers came in better than what traders expeted. This coupled with falling oil prices, after ranging for months, the dollar advances strongly bringing it to levels we have not seen since late July against the euro.

But how much of the dollar advance is based on the fear of geopolitical news? Some think the events in North Korea scare investors as much as politicians, as both the levels of the dollar and the US equities markets show the desire to hold US based assets.

The above charts show the dollar against the euro over the past three weeks. The prices shown are the how many dollars in one euro.