SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar weakened on Tuesday against major rivals after President-elect Donald Trump announced he would sign an executive order imposing 25% tariffs on all products imported into the United States from Mexico and Canada. rose widely.
The dollar rose more than 2% against the Mexican peso and more than 1% against the Canadian peso.
The dollar has been underdogs in recent days as U.S. Treasury markets cheer President Trump's nomination of hedge fund manager Scott Bessent as Treasury secretary.
“It's as if President Trump nominated Scott Bessent to be Treasury secretary, who the market expects will cool President Trump's momentum, so who is in control,” said Matt Simpson, senior market analyst at Citi Index. “It seems like they want to remind the market that they are doing well.”
“However, with the Canadian dollar strengthening against the Mexican peso, the market assumes this will hit Mexico the hardest.”
While traders see Mr. Bessent as a veteran Wall Street fiscal conservative, he has openly supported a stronger dollar and supported tariffs.
The dollar index, which measures the value of the U.S. currency against six rival currencies, came in last place at 107.37. The euro was down 0.6% at $1.043175, while the pound was last down 0.4% at $1.2516.
The euro zone's single currency was hurt on Friday after a European manufacturing survey showed widespread weakness, while a U.S. survey showed unexpectedly high results.
Regarding China, the president-elect said the Chinese government has not taken strong enough measures to stem the flow of illegal drugs from Mexico across the border into the United States by restricting exports of pharmaceutical ingredients.
“Until the tariffs are suspended, we will impose an additional 10% tariff on China on many Chinese products imported into the United States, above and beyond any additional tariffs,” Trump said in a social media post. .
China had previously denied the allegations.
The Australian dollar fell 0.75% to $0.64555, while the New Zealand dollar hit a one-year low, hitting $0.58075.
Turning to cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin was trading at $93,577, well below its weekend all-time high of $99,830.
Bitcoin has rallied more than 40% since the U.S. presidential election earlier this month on hopes that President Trump will loosen the regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies, and has experienced profit-taking ahead of the symbolic $100,000 barrier.
(Reporting by Uncle Banerjee in Singapore; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
