Dollar dips after Trump comments as markets eye tariffs, central banks

By Adam Rasgon

The dollar was modestly lower on Thursday in a choppy session, after comments from U.S. President Donald Trump called for lower interest rates while providing no clarity on tariffs, and investors awaited a round of policy announcements from global central banks.

The dollar is down more than 1% on the week, largely due to a sharp drop on Monday as widely expected tariff announcements from Trump failed to materialise after his inauguration. The dollar has moved only slightly in the sessions since.

The greenback swung between gains and losses on the day as Trump demanded the world drop interest rates in a speech to global business and political leaders in Davos, Switzerland. He also warned they will face tariffs should they make their products anywhere but the U.S.

Despite frequently mentioning tariffs, Trump again declined to give specifics of any duties he intends to put in place.

“We don’t have any truly certain information to go off of, so until we have a definitive answer, we’ll continue to see a little more volatility,” said David Eng, Investment Adviser at Sonora Wealth Group in Vancouver.

“It seems like the markets are more concerned about rate cuts and any kind of greater indicator that there’ll be more rate cuts.”

Investors are awaiting a host of policy decisions from global central banks over the next week, with the Bank of Japan widely expected to raise interest rates at the end of a two-day meeting on Friday.

Rate decisions from the U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank (ECB) are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday of next week, respectively.

Markets are pricing in a nearly 96% chance the ECB will cut rates at its meeting, with recent comments from the central bank’s policymakers indicating a cut was likely.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro,shed 0.19% to 108.06, with the euro up 0.14% at $1.0422.

The greenback tumbled 1.2% on Monday in its steepest one-day slide since November 2023, as Trump’s first day in office came with a slew of executive orders but no tariffs.

The dollar had climbed to a more than two-year high of 110.17 on Jan. 13 on a resilient U.S. economy and expectations of widespread U.S. tariffs, which could weigh on the currencies of other countries.

Data on Thursday showed new applications for U.S. unemployment benefits rose marginally last week, suggesting that solid job growth likely continued in January.

Trump said this week that his administration was looking into 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 that date. He also promised duties on European imports, without providing details.

On Monday Trump signed a trade memo ordering federal agencies to review a range of trade issues by April 1, which many market participants believe will be a key date in revealing tariff plans.

Sterling strengthened 0.31% to $1.2354. The Mexican peso strengthened 0.92% versus the dollar to 20.329.

The Canadian dollar gained 0.16% to C$1.435 per dollar. Canada’s central bank is largely expected to cut rates at its policy meeting next week after inflation data earlier this week came in below its target rate of 2%.

The Japanese yen firmed 0.33% against the greenback to 155.99. The dollar edged up 0.06% to 7.282 versus the offshore Chinese yuan.

China announced plans on Thursday to channel hundreds of billions of yuan of investment from state-owned insurers into shares.