The dollar remained stable against the euro in a peaceful foreign exchange market, after an intervention by the president of the US Central Bank (Fed) Jerome Powell and before the details of the stimulus plan of future President Joe Biden.

Around 20:00 GMT, the dollar was stalling against the euro at $1.2157, as at the close the day before.

The greenback, which at the beginning of the month was trading at its lowest level in two and a half years on the Dollar index, which compares it to other major currencies, has strengthened in recent sessions.

Against the euro, it even briefly rose on Thursday to its highest in a month, at 1.2111 dollars to the euro.

Joe Biden was due to present the basics of the next economic aid package at the end of the day. The future president has promised "trillions of dollars" to deal with the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Until the Democrats' victory in the Georgia Senate, currency traders expected Biden not to have a majority in Congress, which would have complicated the passage of support measures and forced the Fed to boost the economy with a very loose monetary policy. which weakens the dollar.

The dollar strengthened very slightly before stabilizing after the intervention of the head of the Central Bank (Fed) Jerome Powell. He reiterated that a rate hike was "not coming soon".

While stressing that the problem of low inflation was "the most difficult to solve"," Powell nevertheless warned that an acceleration in consumer spending, with the roll-out of vaccinations, could lead to a temporary rise in prices.

"The Fed is going to look kindly at the additional fiscal support, but recent comments (from members of the monetary committee) show that they don't want rates to rise too quickly," said Lee Hardman, an analyst at MUFG.

"The Fed's policy should remain flexible for a long time, the rebound of the dollar should not be prolonged," he said.

After a violent correction at the beginning of the week, bitcoin was off to a better start: at $ 39,868.54 at 20:00 GMT (+6.93%), it was approaching its all-time high, reached Friday at $ 41,981.76, in very volatile exchanges.

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