The US dollar tumbled on Monday as investor confidence in the United States' economy took another hit over President Donald Trump's plans to shake up the Federal Reserve.
On Friday, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said that the president and his team were continuing to study whether they could fire Federal Chair Jerome Powell, just a day after Trump said Powell's termination cannot come fast enough as he called for the Federal to cut interest rates.
DAILY POST reports that the dollar fell to a decade-low against the Swiss franc and slid to its weakest level against the yen in seven months, while the euro surged to a three-year top as an ongoing crisis of confidence in the greenback continued to play out.
Trading was was said to be thinned with markets in Australia and Hong Kong closed for Easter Monday.
Most markets globally were reportedly closed on Friday for a holiday.
“Powell does not report directly to Trump, so (Trump) cannot actually fire him. He can only be removed from office under certain procedures which one would think have a higher barrier… but can the president move the cogs and wheels to undermine the perceived independence of the Fed? Sure, he could.
“I would argue that they don't even need to sack Powell immediately. You just need to create the perception that you could fundamentally change the view of an independent Federal,” head of macro research for Asia ex-Japan at Mizuho, Vishnu Varathan said.
DAILY POST reports that the euro peaked at $1.153275, while the dollar hit a 10-year trough of 0.80695 against the Swiss franc and last traded 1.1% lower at 140.63 yen .
Sterling was up more than 0.5% at $1.3380, its highest since October 1, while the Australian dollar hit a two-month high of $0.64015.
“It's really a buffet for any dollar bear… from the heightened uncertainty around the self-harm from tariffs to the loss of faith even prior to the Powell news,” Varathan said.
Trump's sweeping tariffs and uncertainty over his trade policies have reportedly sent global markets into a tailspin and darkened the outlook for the world's largest economy, in turn weakening the dollar as investors pull money out of US assets.
