The dollar gained on Friday as reports that U.S. President Donald Trump was considering plans to impose tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports as soon as next week boosted safe-haven demand.
Citing six people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported that Trump wanted to move ahead with a plan to impose the tariffs as soon as a public-comment period concludes next week. The report came after the U.S. and China imposed tariffs on $16 billion worth of goods on each other. The two countries also slapped each other with a $34 billion worth of imports in July.
The U.S. Dollar Index, widely seen as a safe-haven asset in recent months, gained 0.04% to 94.68 by 11:30AM ET (03:30 GMT).
“There is an ongoing trend to buy the dollar on the trade friction theme, which has negatively affected emerging market currencies and in turn fuels the dollar’s rise,” said Junichi Ishikawa, senior FX strategist at IG Securities in Tokyo.
