By Boldizsar Gyori BUDAPEST, April 16 (Reuters) - The forint and the zloty weakened on Tuesday while the crown held flat as tensions continued to flare in the Middle East, hurting emerging market currencies. The dollar rose to a five-month high against major peers following hotter-than-expected U.S. retail sales figures. A firming dollar usually weighs on emerging market currencies as it tends to attract investments away from assets perceived as riskier. Hungary's forint weakened half a percent this week to trade at 394.8 to the euro at 0800 GMT, touching a two-week low. "The dollar firmed to the forint in the last couple of days as well as against the euro due to the geopolitical situation, so the currency's weakening is not forint-specific," a Budapest-based trader said. The Polish zloty also sunk to an almost one-month low to the euro at 4.32, down from its highest since early 2020 reached last week. "Last week's move to 4.26 did not stand the test of time or, more specifically, of the strengthening dollar on international markets," Bank Millennium said in a note. The Czech crown firmed slightly to 25.29. The dollar strengthened after U.S. retail sales increased more than expected in March, data showed, further evidence that the U.S. economy ended the first quarter on solid ground, bolstering expectations that the Federal Reserve could delay cutting interest rates until September. Some economists see the window for lowering rates this year closing. The Federal Reserve keeping rates higher for longer will dent investor appetite for riskier emerging market assets, further weakening their currencies. CEE SNAPSHO AT MARKETS T 1000 CET CURRENC IES Latest Previous Daily Change bid close change in 2024 EURCZK= CzechEURHUF= Hungary 0 EURPLN= Polish EURRON= Romania EURRSD= Serbian 0 Note: calculated from 1800 daily CET change Latest Previous Daily Change close change in 2024 .PX Prague 1545.08 1557.560 -0.80% +9.27% 0 .BUX Budapes 66344.5 67407.86 -1.58% +9.44% t 3 .WIG20 Warsaw 2421.31 2453.31 -1.30% +3.34% .BETI Buchare 16776.8 16908.20 -0.78% +9.15% st 3 Spread Daily vs Bund change in Czech spread Republi c CZ2YT=R s CZ5YT=R s CZ10YT= s Poland PL2YT=R s PL5YT=R s PL10YT= s FORWARD 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interba nk Czech 4.83 4.28 4.09 5.55 Rep Hungary 7.45 7.22 7.22 7.69 Poland 5.86 5.81 5.66 5.86 Note: are for ask FRA prices quotes ********************************************* ***************** (Reporting by Boldizsar Gyori in Budapest, additional reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk in Warsaw; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
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