CBS News reports that unlike the luckier U.S. stock market, the U.S. dollar is “sinking fast.”
“The value of the greenback just hit a four-year low … against a basket of six other major currencies,” reports CBS, citing info from the ICE U.S. Dollar Index. “While much of the decline has occurred over the past year, the dollar has slid more than 3 percent since mid-January, according to the index.”
The devaluing U.S. dollar does more than make people's overseas vacations more expensive, said CBS. It also upsets financial markets and “makes it more expensive for American companies to import furniture, clothing and many other goods manufactured outside the U.S..” This adds to businesses’ already expanding costs amid the President Donald Trump’s far-reaching tariffs.
And of course, the slide has everything to do with Trump, say analysts. The decline coincides with a host of destabilizing forces, including Trump’s latest tariff threats against any nation that dares to sell oil to Cuba. Plus, a Trump-inspired longer-term trend is also in the works as investors shift out of the dollar and into assets such as gold, according to JPMorgan Chase. It does not help that Trump, who is not an economist, actually wants the dollar devalued, allegedly to better compete with international economies with pit-deep currencies.
At a Jan. 27 Iowa appearance, Trump was asked if the dollar had plummeted too far, and responded: "No, I think it's great. The value of the dollar — look at the business we're doing."
That statement was in direct contradiction to his own Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who claimed in a Jan. 28 CNBC interview that the U.S. government continues to want a "strong dollar."
The dollar took its cue from Trump rather than Bessent, continuing to sink after he declared war on its and dropping nearly 1 percent as the president fueled speculation among investors, who diverted investment into currencies whose respective countries actually desire a strong national currency.
Meanwhile, CBS reports Trump’s tariff continue to deliver their own destruction.
The dollar's most recent leg down is due to "Trump's promotion of tariff policy and pressure on the Fed to lower the key rate," Alex Kuptsikevich, FxPro chief market analyst, told CBS News. "Over the past couple of weeks, these factors have resurfaced due to a new round of tariff threats and Trump's comments that he feels comfortable with the dollar at its current level."
With Trump’s eager announcement of a new fed chair, CBS News reports investors now fear a new chair aligned with his views might give the dollar “even more room to fall.”
“Without adequate support from Treasury officials and the Fed, the U.S. currency could fall 7 percent to 8 percent in the coming months, returning to the lows of 2018 and 2021," Kuptsikevich said.
Read the CBS report at this link.