Dollar rallies, stocks retreat after Trump vows tariffs
By Kevin Buckland and Ankur Banerjee
TOKYO (Reuters) -The dollar rallied against major peers on Tuesday after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump pledged tariffs on all imports from Canada and Mexico, and additional tariffs on China.
Stocks declined, giving back some of the robust gains of the previous session, when they were buoyed by the nomination of fund manager Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary, considered by investors as a voice for Wall Street in Washington.
Bessent’s appointment had also led to a sharp fall in U.S. yields as investors scooped up Treasury bonds, sending the dollar sliding in the previous session.
The dollar jumped 2% to 20.679 Mexican pesos as of 0040 GMT on Tuesday, and climbed 1% to C$1.4130. It strengthened 0.3% to 7.2681 yuan in offshore trading.
The U.S. currency added 0.14% to 154.43 yen, while the euro slipped 0.5% to $1.0444.
“It’s almost as if Trump wants to remind markets who is in control, after nominating Scott Bessent as Treasury Sec – a man markets expected to cool Trump’s potency,” said Matt Simpson, senior market analyst at City Index.
“With the Canadian dollar rising against the Mexican peso, markets are assuming this will hit Mexico the hardest.”
Sterling lost 0.35% to $1.2526, and the Aussie dollar slumped 0.8% to $0.6453.
Australia’s stock benchmark eased 0.36%, a day after rising to a record high.
Japan’s Nikkei lost 1.3% and South Korea’s KOSPI eased 0.4%.
Chinese markets are due to open shortly.
U.S. S&P 500 futures pointed 0.3% lower following a 0.3% gain in the cash index overnight, when the small-cap Russell 2000 index also hit an all-time high.
Trump said that on his first day in office he would impose a 25% tariff on all products from Mexico and Canada, and an additional 10% tariff on goods from China, citing concerns over illegal immigration and the trade of illicit drugs.
“It was just last month that Trump said that ‘the most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariff’, so there really should not have been a surprise in Trump’s intention, just in the timing of the comments,” said Sean Callow, a senior FX analyst at ITC (NS:ITC) Markets.
“The fall in trade-sensitive currencies makes sense, and should persist near term.”
Bitcoin was steady at around $94,111, finding its feet following a pullback from last week’s record high at $99,830. The token has benefited from speculation of an easier regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies under Trump.