ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: Trump tariff war triggers USD surge, ‘risk’ slump

  • Forex news for Asian trading on Monday, February 3, 2025

Tariffs, read from the bottom up for the chronology

Other

Over the weekend Trump announced tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico.

Markets here in the very early hours started with a large gap higher for the USD. On the flip side, large gaps down for CAD, EUR, AUD, GBP, NZD. There was some early support for the yen on the basis of expectations of ‘safe haven’ flow benefiting JPY but USD/JPY has subsequently traded higher.

Of the large gaps down for those currencies, any gap fill has been minor only – large holes remain.

Equities in the region have been hit lower, Japan’s Nikkei is down 2.5% or so.

US equity index futures had a large gap lower upon Sunday evening trade opening the week. As I post these are barely off their lows.

Crypto is lower, at one stage ETH/USD was down circa 30%.

Gold is lower.

There was other news and data, but much of it was not viewed with much interest due to the intense focus on the tariff inflicted market turmoil.

  • The Caixin China Manufacturing PMI for January 2025 squeeked in an expansion, its fourth consecutive month, at just 50.1. Employment fell in the sector.
  • Australian retail sales fell in December m/m but not as badly as expected

The USD index:

usd dxy 03 February 2025 wrap 2

Top Brokers

Sponsored

General Risk Warning