Market News
U.S. dollar falls to three-year low as Trump’s Powell threats further dent investor confidence - CNBC
BY Jesse Pound
The U.S. dollar continued its slide on Monday, falling to its lowest level since 2022, as global investors retreat from U.S. assets in the face of tension between President Donald Trump and the Federal Reserve.
The ICE U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the greenback against a basket of foreign currencies, fell as low as 97.92 on Monday. That’s the lowest level for the index since March 2022, according to FactSet.
At roughly 10 a.m. ET, the index was down 1.1% on the day at 98.24.
The dollar has fallen sharply since President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January. The April 2 rollout of the global reciprocal tariffs seemed to spur one round of selling. Trump’s criticism of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell last week, along with White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett saying the president and his team are exploring whether they can remove the central bank chief, appear to have put even more pressure on the greenback.
Trump criticized Powell again on Monday, calling the Fed Chair “Mr. Too Late” and “a major loser” in a post on Truth Social.
“We’re seeing a clear signal from the market that it doesn’t like even the idea that the president might try to remove the Fed chair. There has been some loss of confidence in U.S. economic policy making in recent weeks. We’ve seen that in this very odd combination of upward pressure at times on longer-term bond yields combined with a weaker dollar. That suggests global investors pulling capital out of the U.S.,” Krishna Guha, vice chairman at Evercore ISI, said Monday on “Squawk Box.”
Andy Laperriere, head of U.S. policy at Piper Sandler, raised similar concerns about a change at the Fed in a note to clients Monday.
“We are looking at a president who is determined to turn Washington upside down. Investors who ignored Trump’s own words proclaiming higher tariffs were ill-served by doing so. Likewise, it would be a mistake to brush aside Trump’s own words and actions on these other issues,” Laperriere wrote.
The dollar is often seen as the global reserve currency, and U.S. assets have broadly outperformed the rest of the world for the past decade, spurring rising demand for the greenback. However, U.S. stock and bond markets have fallen during the tariff standoff between the Trump administration and other foreign leaders, appearing to drag down the dollar with them.
On Monday, several of the currencies that have gained the most against the dollar during this period were again moving higher. The euro gained 1.3% against the greenback, while the Japanese yen and Swiss franc also gained ground.
— CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed reporting.
