THE dollar heads into the second half of 2026 on a high, thanks to bets for higher US interest rates and an unquenchable thirst for US assets from investors chasing the “American exceptionalism” that may spell more pain for other currencies.

It is the best performing currency at the half-year point, up 3% and contrasts with a year ago, when it was nursing a fall of more than 10%, in its biggest first-half dive since the early 1970s, on US tariff policy.