Bruised dollar languishes near three-year lows on tariff anxiety

NEW YORK: The dollar drifted lower on Monday, while the Japanese yen and the euro progressed higher as investor confidence in the world’s reserve currency remained in question following a stream of tariff-related pronouncements from US President Donald Trump.

Investors braced for another volatile week as Trump’s imposition and then abrupt postponement of tariffs on goods imported to the US continued to sow confusion.

Against a basket of currencies, the US dollar languished at 99.4, near Friday’s three-year low. “Markets right now are trading the uncertainty, and that has not been helped over the weekend by the contradictory stories coming out of the US administration,” said Nick Rees, head of macro research at Monex Europe.

“That really skews risks for the time being towards further dollar weakness as markets try to avoid some of this uncertainty by hiding basically anywhere that isn’t in the US” The euro climbed 0.3% against the dollar to $1.1395, hovering close to its three-year high hit on Friday as investors flocked to the common currency following a crisis of confidence in the dollar.

Growing nervousness among investors over owning US assets has caused some to dump those positions and move money into other markets including Europe, boosting the euro. Against the Swiss franc, the dollar see-sawed between gains and losses and was last up 0.36% at 0.8192 francs at 1130 GMT.

Sterling rose 0.5% to $1.3196, while the New Zealand dollar rose to a four-month high of $0.58915. “This is the first sign of a de-escalation but there is also room for doubt about how long lasting this could be,” Paul Mackel, Global Head of FX Research at HSBC said in a note to clients.

Trump on Sunday said he would announce the tariff rate on imported semiconductors over the next week, adding that there would be flexibility towards some companies in the sector.

The White House on Friday granted an exclusion from steep tariffs for smartphones, computers and certain other electronics imported largely from China. Trump later said the move would be short-lived. Against the yen, the dollar eased 0.2% to 143.19, staying close to six-month lows.