London (awp/afp) – The more conciliatory remarks of American President Donald Trump on China, on which he would “prefer” not to impose customs duties, caused the dollar to fall heavily on Friday, while gold, a safe haven, surf this climate of uncertainty.
This unexpected announcement penalizes the greenback against other currencies: around 4:30 p.m. GMT (5:30 p.m. in Paris), it fell by 1.09% against the pound, to 1.2489 dollars, and lost 0.93% against the euro, at $1.0514.
“We have a very big power over China, it’s tariffs, and they don’t want it, and I would prefer not to have to use it,” the US president said on Fox News on Thursday evening.
After taking office on Monday, Mr. Trump said that 10% tariffs on all Chinese imports could take effect on February 1. During the electoral campaign, he even mentioned up to 60% taxes.
The prospect of this protectionist trade policy, considered inflationary, initially boosted the dollar.
“The mixed messages” of the last few days are generating strong “volatility on the foreign exchange market,” notes Lee Hardman, analyst at MUFG.
Donald Trump also “demanded” Thursday from the American central bank, the Fed, that “interest rates fall immediately”. This is due to meet on Tuesday, but should leave its rates unchanged.
Gold, a popular safe haven in uncertain times, took the opportunity to rise to $2,786.01 on Friday, around $4 from its historic record at the end of last October.
-In the euro zone, private sector activity returned to growth in January after two months of contraction, according to the PMI Flash activity index published on Friday.
In the United Kingdom, private sector activity also accelerated in January, again exceeding expectations.
However, this data does not change the expectations of analysts, who are still counting on key rate cuts from the European Central Bank next week and from the Bank of England at the beginning of February.
After beating its historic peak in January at $109,241.11, bitcoin is on the verge of surpassing this latest record.
On Friday, it rose to $106,290.34, driven by Donald Trump’s plans to “set up a team to study the possibility of a national cryptocurrency reserve and propose a new regulatory framework for the sector “, explains David Morrison, analyst at Trade Nation.
Cours de vendredi Cours de jeudi 16H30 GMT 22H00 GMT EUR/USD 1,0514 1,0415 EUR/JPY 163,67 162,54 EUR/CHF 0,9512 0,9450 EUR/GBP 0,8418 0,8431 USD/JPY 155,67 156,05 USD/CHF 0,9047 0,9073 GBP/USD 1,2489 1,2353
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