Washington (AWP/AFP) – Donald Trump’s statements, which has glimpsed possible commercial negotiations with China rather than the taxation of customs duties in the second world economy, drops the dollar heavily on Friday while gold , refuge value, benefits from this climate of uncertainty.
“We have very great power over China, these are customs duties, and they don’t want it, and I would prefer not to use it,” Trump said on Fox News on Thursday evening.
“The new president seemed to considerably soften his approach to the second world economy (which) resulted in a sharp drop in the dollar,” said myex USA analysts.
This unexpected announcement penalizes the greenback in the face of other currencies: in the middle of the day, it fell by more than 1% against the book and the euro. Around 7:30 p.m. GMT, it fell 1.04% against the book, to 1.2482 dollars, and dropped 0.77% at the euro, to 1.0495 dollars.
The dollar index, which compares the American currency to a basket of other large currencies, fell 0.93% to 107,457 points.
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.
For Brad Bechtel, Jefferies, the market is now repositioning and “begins to ask questions about the exact customs duties” which could be set up by the Trump administration.
-In addition to China, Donald Trump announced that he intended to impose customs duties of 25% on products from Canada and Mexico from February 1.
No decree has yet been signed in this sense.
“It is likely that noise around customs tariffs will intensify in the days and weeks to come,” said Brown Brothers Harriman analysts in a note.
According to them, the backdrop “remains unchanged (…) characterized by strong growth, high inflation and an American central bank (Fed) more inclined to prudence”, which promotes a strong dollar.
Gold, a needed refuge value in uncertain times, took the opportunity to climb on Friday up to 2,786.01 dollars, about 4 dollars from its historic record from the end of last October. Around 7:30 p.m. GMT, its course remained high, at 2,772.40 dollars perce.
Cours de vendredi Cours de jeudi 19H30 GMT 22H00 GMT EUR/USD 1,0495 1,0415 EUR/JPY 163,57 162,54 EUR/CHF 0,9507 0,9450 EUR/GBP 0,8408 0,8431 USD/JPY 155,85 156,05 USD/CHF 0,9058 0,9073 GBP/USD 1,2482 1,2353
AFP/Rp
