London (AWP/AFP) – The more conciliatory remarks of US President Donald Trump on China, to whom he “prefer” not to impose customs duties, bring the dollar to fall heavily, while gold, refuge value, Surfs 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 drops 1.09% against the pound, to 1.2489 dollars, and drops 0.93% at the euro, at $ 1.0514.
“We have a very big power over China, these are customs duties, and they don’t want it, and I would prefer not to use it,” said US President on Fox News on Thursday evening.
After taking office on Monday, Trump said that customs duties of 10% on all Chinese imports could come into force on February 1. During the electoral campaign, he even mentioned up to 60% taxes.
The prospect of this protectionist trade policy, considered to be inflationary, initially boosted the dollar.
“The contradictory messages” of the last days generate a strong “volatility on the exchange market”, notes Lee Hardman, analyst at MUFG.
Donald Trump also “demanded” on Thursday from the American central bank, the Fed, which “interest rates drop immediately”. This one must meet on Tuesday, but should leave its rates unchanged.
Gold, value refuge in uncertain time, takes the opportunity to climb on Friday up to 2,786.01 dollars, about 4 dollars from its historic record in late October.
-In the euro zone, the activity of the private sector returned to growth in January after two months of contraction, according to the PMI Flash activity index published on Friday.
In the United Kingdom, the activity of the private sector has also accelerated in January, also exceeding expectations.
However, these data do not modify the expectations of analysts, which still count on decline in the master rates of the European Central Bank next week and the Bank of England in early February.
After defeating its historic summit in January at 109,241.11 dollars, Bitcoin is on the way to exceed him this last record.
Friday, it went up to 106,290.34 dollars, driven by Donald Trump’s projects to “set up a team responsible for studying the possibility of a national cryptocurrency reserve and proposing 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
AFP/Rp
