The U.S. dollar fell to fresh four-month lows on Monday morning, as the trend for the world’s benchmark currency continued to skew negative.
As Bloomberg notes, the combination of a holiday in Japan as well as commentary emanating from the G-20 conference seems to be adding to the greenback’s woes:
A Japanese holiday and a rather uneventful Group-of-20 meeting that left most business unfinished suppressed flows in the major currencies; dropping a reference from the G-20 statement to resist trade protectionism weighed on the dollar, with macro and leveraged accounts adding to shorts positions, according to a London-based trader who asked not to be identified as he isn’t authorized to speak publicly. Volumes were near the lowest they have been in March, a Europe-based trader noted.
The dollar has now given up a large portion of its post-election gains. Investors had flocked to the currency after President Trump’s surprising win, anticipating protectionist measures along with rising interest rates. So far, only the latter of those scenarios has materialized.
Political risks, particularly in Europe, are bound to influence currencies this year. The details of the Brexit — Britain’s exit from the EU — are still being ironed out, and a key election in France still looms for this spring.
The PowerShares DB US Dollar Bullish (NYSE:UUP) rose $0.01 (+0.04%) in premarket trading Monday. Year-to-date, UUP has declined -2.15%, versus a 6.04% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.
UUP currently has an ETF Daily News SMART Grade of A (Strong Buy), and is ranked #1 of 25 ETFs in the Currency ETFs category.