Tokyo (awp/afp) – The dollar stumbled on Monday at the start of Asian trade, penalized by Donald Trump’s appointment of Scott Bessent as American Secretary of the Treasury, a choice likely to moderate his inflationary policies, while bitcoin was hovering just a stone’s throw from $100,000.
Fall in the dollar, the market weighs the choice of Bessent
Around 03:00 GMT, the greenback fell 0.7% against the Japanese currency, to 153.75 yen per dollar, and dropped 0.6% against the European currency, to 1.0484 euros per dollar.
This marks a clear reversal of the trend after weeks of continued appreciation of the dollar, which rose to a two-year high against the euro on Friday.
The greenback has been pushed in particular since Donald Trump’s victory in the American presidential election by the prospect of inflationary policies – tax cuts, customs duties, expulsions of migrants – likely to maintain American interest rates and bond yields. at a high level.
However, by designating Scott Bessent as future Secretary of the Treasury, President-elect Donald Trump has chosen a well-known figure on Wall Street, perceived as a moderate, both a specialist in the foreign exchange and debt markets and an ardent defender free trade.
With Mr. Bessent still to be confirmed by the Senate, ‘bond markets and corporations can be expected to exert greater influence over the Trump administration: Bessent’s experience as a savvy trader could allow it to adopt a more nuanced approach to fiscal policy,” said Stephen Innes, analyst at SPI Asset Management.
Enough to cool the positions of upward investors on the dollar, “against a backdrop of speculation (according to which) tariff policies could be introduced more gradually” and that their implementation “could be the subject of strategic negotiations” with the other countries, he added.
However, the initial market reaction shows that the crazy rise in the greenback due to Mr. Trump’s arrival at the White House “is unlikely to continue”, according to analysts at Mizuho Securities cited by Bloomberg.
Bitcoin stalls near $100,000, oil stable
The largest cryptocurrency by capitalization tends to stall in a narrow range, a little below the symbolic threshold of $100,000, after crossing the $99,000 mark for the first time on Friday. Bitcoin was worth $97,556 around 03:00 GMT.
Such a level, far from being imagined 16 years ago when the currency was created, gives a little more credibility to the controversial field of “cryptos”, which sees as a godsend the return to the White House of Donald Trump, who swears he will make the United States “the bitcoin capital of the world.”
For their part, oil prices fell, catching their breath after being boosted last week by the intensification of geopolitical risks.
Around 02:50 GMT, the price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea dropped 0.41% to $74.86, and that of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell 0.44% to $70.93.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange in good shape, in the wake of Wall Street
At the midday break, the flagship Nikkei index was up 1.53% at 38,868.68 points, and the broader Topix index was up 1.02% at 2,724.14 points.
“After having moved downward for several sessions, the market should follow a rebound trend today, in the wake of an increase in the American stock markets last week,” noted the experts at Tokai Tokyo Securities.
“However, with little positive news” regarding Japanese companies, “it is likely that the market will cool,” they warned.
The convenience store giant Seven & i, owner of 7-Eleven stores, jumped 1.91%, after press reports reporting increased efforts by the founding family to obtain financing to buy back the group’s shares to exit of the coast in order to escape the desire of the Canadian Couche-Tard.
The Chinese stock markets were close to balance at the start of trading: around 03:00 GMT Hong Kong rose by 0.08%, Shanghai by 0.07% and Shenzhen by 0.03%.
afp/al
