NEW YORK: The US dollar rose against major currencies including the Swiss franc and the euro on Thursday but still remained under pressure from concerns arising from slowing economic growth and global trade quarrels.
US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 200% tariff on wine, cognac and other alcohol imports from Europe, opening a new front in a global trade war that has roiled financial markets and raised recession fears.
Trump had also on Wednesday threatened to retaliate against the EU’s announcement that it would place counter tariffs on $28 billion worth of US imports from next month.
Labor department data on Thursday showed that US producer prices were unexpectedly unchanged in February, but the prospects of tariffs are unlikely to keep prices down in the coming months.
“We’ve had a very large dollar weakening move in the previous days and weeks and it feels like we’re entering a bit of a consolidation period,” said Vassili Serebriakov, FX strategist at UBS in New York.
“We do see the possibility that the dollar recovers because we’re still being hit with tariffs news and we have this early April reciprocal tariff deadline coming up.”
The dollar strengthened 0.35% to 0.885 against the Swiss franc.
The euro was down 0.27% to $1.0856 against the dollar but near the five-month top of $1.09470 hit earlier in the week.
The euro has drawn additional support from Germany’s fiscal reset plan. Germany’s outgoing lower house of parliament will hold a special session on Thursday to debate the 500 billion euro fund for infrastructure and changes to borrowing rules in Europe’s largest economy to bolster defence.
“We are due for a dollar consolidation and a rebound but it will depend on how much the trade policy and tariffs takes precedence over the drivers of dollar weakness, which European recovery and fiscal spending and weaker US data,” Serebriakov added.
The Japanese yen strengthened 0.28% against the greenback to 147.84 per dollar, little moved by Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda’s comments reaffirming the bank’s resolve to shrink its “too big” balance sheet.
While the BOJ is expected to leave rates unchanged at next week’s policy meeting, over two-thirds of economists polled by Reuters expect a rise of 25 basis points to 0.75% in the third quarter, most likely in July.
Currency markets were also processing data from the previous day showing US inflation rose slightly less than expected in February, but the relief it offers could be temporary as the data did not fully capture the cascade of Trump’s tariffs.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.12% to 103.71. It is on track for two straight days of gains.
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