US dollar falls as traders sell US assets on new tariff uncertainty
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The US dollar dropped against every major currency as Mr Trump’s fresh tariff plans raised concerns about the outlook for the world’s biggest economy.
PHOTO: AFP
Singapore - The US dollar dropped against every major currency as President Donald Trump’s fresh tariff plans
A Bloomberg gauge of the greenback retreated as much as 0.3 per cent on Feb 23, extending Feb 20’s decline amid thin trading with Japan’s markets shut for a holiday.
The yen, Swiss franc and the Swedish krona led the gains against the dollar after Mr Trump announced a global levy of 15 per cent following a move by the US Supreme Court to strike down the President’s global reciprocal tariffs.
The US currency also dropped against the Singapore dollar, trading at 1.2698 at 10.06am, down 0.2 per cent.
Futures on the S&P 500 Index also dropped 0.6 per cent in Asian morning trade on Feb 23.
“Tariffs as a weapon may have lost a bit of power, but President Trump can still do a fair bit of damage,” said Mr Rodrigo Catril, strategist at National Australia Bank in Sydney. “Trump’s tariff regime is still in place with more uncertainty.”
Mr Trump’s latest tariff threat is clouding the outlook for both the US economy and global trade, with analysts weighing how Washington’s trading partners may respond to the levies.
Bloomberg’s dollar index fell 8.1 per cent in 2025, its biggest annual drop in eight years, pressured by the US Federal Reserve’s policy easing and Mr Trump’s initial sweeping global levies.
Senior US officials said Mr Trump’s tariff defeat at the Supreme Court will not unravel deals negotiated with US partners as they sought to defend the administration’s assertive trade policies.
Those deals – which the administration made with partners including China, the European Union, Japan and South Korea – remain in place, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Feb 22 on the CBS programme, Face The Nation.
The friction over tariffs spilled over on Feb 22 as Europe’s trade chief said he will propose halting ratification of a deal struck with the US, while India postponed talks to finalise an interim trade deal.
“The broad dollar decline likely reflects the fresh injection of policy uncertainty the ruling entails,” Goldman Sachs Group strategists wrote in a note. “Policy uncertainty is a particularly important channel for the dollar as it can negatively influence investor and business activity.” BLOOMBERG
