SINGAPORE: The U.S. dollar rose on Friday, fuelled by upheavals in the global trade landscape, as U.S. President Donald Trump announced more import tariffs, ranging from 35% on neighbouring Canada to plans for blanket levies of 15% or 20% on most trade partners.
Most currencies initially held in tight ranges in early Asian trade, though the dollar gained ground later after Trump’s latest comments boosted uncertainty over his evolving trade measures.
The Canadian dollar was down 0.27% at C$1.3693, following a knee-jerk fall of more than 0.5% after Trump unveiled a tariff rate of 35% on imports from the neighbour, starting August 1.
“Canada finds itself in the firing line and it’s obviously not the end of the week we wanted to see, so you’d expect to see risk assets fall because there is a risk of escalation from several parties,“ said IG market analyst Tony Sycamore.
“The tariff headlines so far have been largely ignored, but Canada’s… It’s something which I don’t think the market was braced for.”
The European Union could receive a letter on tariff rates by Friday, Trump said the day before, throwing into question the progress of the bloc’s trade talks with Washington.
The euro fell 0.2% to $1.1682, heading for a weekly decline of about 0.9%.
The risk-sensitive Australian dollar also slipped 0.11% to $0.6581 as the market mood soured.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he sought a diplomatic solution to Trump’s threat of 50% tariffs on the country, but vowed to reciprocate like-for-like if they take effect on August 1.
The Brazilian real was little changed at 5.5321 per dollar, though set to lose 2% on the week for its steepest such decline in nearly five months.
Elsewhere, sterling was down 0.16% at $1.3558 and was set to lose more than 0.6% on the week.
The New Zealand dollar fell 0.34% to $0.6015 and the yen slid 0.44% to 146.91 a dollar.
The Japanese currency was headed for a weekly decline of roughly 1.6%, after Trump slapped tariffs of 25% on Tokyo this week.
While the market reaction to Trump’s slew of new tariffs has been largely muted compared to April’s manic sell-off after “Liberation Day”, investors remain on tenterhooks about global trade and whether the August 1 deadline is final.
That in turn has supported the dollar, which was up 0.2% against a basket of currencies at 97.79, and set to end the week with a gain of 0.8%.
“For the moment, I think the uncertainty is just playing to a little bit of U.S. dollar stability, and I wouldn’t be too surprised if that holds for another couple of weeks,“ said Ray Attrill, head of FX research at National Australia Bank.
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin scaled yet another record high of $117,685.96, driven partly by demand from institutional investors.
“The … new record reflects the resilience of global risk appetite even in the face of Trump tariffs, as well as high optimism over U.S. legislative proposals,“ said DBS FX and credit strategist Chang Wei Liang.
He was referring to measures the U.S. House is set to advance in its upcoming ‘Crypto Week’.
Ether similarly jumped more than 6% to a five-month high of $3,017.81.
