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Dollar index touches fresh two-week low
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Traders await more detailed tariff plans
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ECB policymaker comments point to cut next week
(Updates to afternoon U.S. trading)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK, Jan 22 (Reuters) - The dollar was little
changed on Wednesday after earlier dipping to a new two-week
low, as investors continued to await concrete announcements
about U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff plans.
Trump said late on Tuesday his administration was weighing
imposing a 10% tariff on goods imported from China on Feb. 1,
after he earlier said Mexico and Canada could face levies of
around 25% by Feb. 1.
He also promised duties on European imports, without
elaborating further.
After hitting a more than two-year high of 110.17 yen last
week largely on anticipation of tariffs, the greenback has shown
signs of an overcrowded trade reversing on the lack of firm
plans from Trump. It was down about 1.2% on the week and in five
of the previous seven sessions.
"We were due for some sort of correction and the fact that
we didn't get any big bang on tariffs day one kind of sparked
that profit taking," said Brad Bechtel, global head of FX at
Jefferies in New York.
"The market didn't have a huge amount of tariff premium
built in, it had a little bit and that's what's been taken out
of the market now, but a lot of the move is really been more Fed
expectations and interest rate differentials."
ECB DECISION
The dollar index, which measures the greenback
against a basket of currencies, rose 0.01% to 108.14, after it
early dipped to 107.75, its lowest since Jan. 6.
The euro was down 0.08% at $1.0421. Multiple European
Central Bank policymakers backed further rate cuts in comments
on Wednesday, indicating a reduction next week is virtually
locked in and further moves lower are likely to come even if the
U.S. Federal Reserve takes a more deliberate approach.
Markets are pricing in a roughly 96% chance for a cut of at
least 25 basis points from the ECB at its policy meeting next
week, according to LSEG data.
Trump on Monday signed a broad trade memorandum, ordering
federal agencies to complete comprehensive reviews of a range of
trade issues by April 1, which many market participants believe
will be a key date in revealing tariff plans.
On Wednesday, Trump said he would add new tariffs to his
sanctions threat against Russia if the country does not make a
deal to end its war in Ukraine, adding they could also be
applied to "other participating countries." The rouble
was last up 0.25% against the greenback to 99.246 per dollar.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened
0.66% to 156.50. Markets are pricing in an 88.3% chance of a
rate hike of at least 25 basis points at the Bank of Japan's
meeting on Friday.
Sterling weakened 0.22% to $1.2327. The Office for
National Statistics said Britain ran a bigger-than-expected
budget deficit in December, swelled by debt interest costs and a
one-off purchase of military homes, highlighting fiscal pressure
for finance minister Rachel Reeves.
The Canadian dollar was down 0.33% to C$1.44 per
dollar, falling to a near five-year low on Tuesday of C$1.4515
as data showing cooling inflation last month added pressure.
Analysts at Deutsche Bank said they see the Canadian dollar
to greenback as "one of the most under-priced FX crosses for an
FX trade war."
The Mexican peso strengthened 0.83% versus the dollar
at 20.466.
China's yuan weakened 0.15% against the greenback to
7.28 per dollar in offshore trading, after pushing to the
strongest level since Dec. 11 on Tuesday.