US dollar edges lower as China tariffs kick in

NEW YORK, Feb 4 (Reuters) – The US dollar edged lower on Tuesday as President Donald Trump’s tariff threats were interpreted more as a negotiating tactic rather than an end goal, a day after he suspended planned measures against Mexico and Canada.

However, the new Trump administration imposed additional 10% tariffs on imports from China effective from early Tuesday and currency analysts said they expected high sensitivity to tariff developments and volatility to persist.

The US dollar index, a measure of the value of the greenback relative to a weighted basket of six major foreign currencies, was down 0.56% at 107.97 while the Canadian dollar was weaker and the Mexican peso was stronger.

“We’re still looking at these 10% tariffs on China and China’s retaliation, which is going to add some risk premium back into the market,” said Helen Given, FX trader at Monex USA. “We’ll see if there’s any sort of negotiation on the back end that might tamp these down as we saw with Mexico and Canada. But as it looks right now, the trade war with China is back up and running.”

The euro rose slightly, with Washington warning that the European Union may be next in line for trade levies, which are widely expected to push up US inflation, supporting the dollar by keeping US interest rates higher for longer.

Beijing on Tuesday imposed tariffs on some US imports in a swift response to new US duties on Chinese goods, raising the stakes in a showdown between the world’s top two economies.

“It suggests that China is wary of pushing back too hard against Trump’s latest tariffs and is leaving the door open for future negotiations,” said Lee Hardman, senior currency analyst at MUFG.

The Chinese yuan edged up 0.23% to 7.287 per dollar in offshore trading. There is no official yuan trading until Wednesday, with mainland markets still closed for Lunar New Year festivities.

The Australian dollar AUD=D4, which often acts as a liquid proxy for the yuan because the Australian economy is highly exposed to China, rose 0.5% to USD 0.626, well above Monday’s low of USD 0.6085, the weakest level since April 2020.

EURO LOWER

The euro rose 0.37% to USD 1.038, with market participants watching parity.

Several analysts recently said that US tariffs would have a deflationary effect on the euro area.

“While the prospects for wider across-the-board tariffs on the EU (are) now highly uncertain, to the extent that tariff back-and-forth continues, an environment of prolonged trade uncertainty should weigh on the Euro in and of itself,” Goldman Sachs analysts said in a research note.

The Canadian dollar lost 0.81% to C$1.43 against its US counterpart, following a sharp rebound from a low of C$1.4792 on Monday, the weakest level since 2003.

The Mexican peso rose 1.06% to 20.546, after jumping over 1.5% the day before.

The US dollar was nearly up 0.3% at 154.290 yen, with the Japanese currency seen as a safe-haven currency and the greenback less appealing after recent rises.

(Reporting by Hannah Lang in New York; additional reporting by Stefano Rebaudo; Editing by Marguerita Choy, Bernadette Baum and Sandra Maler)