The United States of America dollar, on Tuesday, April 17, took a plunge against a basket of major currencies.
The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies was little changed at 89.407 after losing 0.4 percent overnight. The greenback crashed by 0.2 percent on Tuesday.
That weakness included drops against sterling GBP= and against several Asian currencies including the Korean Won KRW=, which were bought on hopes that a U.S.-China trade spat would calm down.
“There’s been a general weakness in the dollar and risk sentiment seems to be reviving somewhat. That is supporting the euro but also sterling and Asian currencies,” said Alvin Tan, FX Strategist at Societe Generale.
“In the background we have the trade issues but that seems to have died off. We haven’t had any tweets from Trump (on trade) for a few days.”
Against the yen, the dollar softened to 106.96 yen JPY=, off its seven-week high of 107.78 yen touched on Friday as traders braced for a meeting between Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Tokyo is eager to avoid being pushed into talks on a two-way free trade agreement aimed not only at market access but at monetary and currency policies.
But traders suspect Washington could put pressure on Japan after the U.S. Treasury’s semi-annual currency report published on Friday kept Japan on a monitoring list for possible manipulation.
Trump accused Russia and China on Monday of devaluing their currencies, even though the yuan has been strengthening in recent months, and the rouble’s recent dive has been widely blamed on U.S. sanctions, Reuters reports.
