Investing.com - The dollar slipped in Asia on Friday amid the latest round of staff cycling in U.S. president Trump's White House, after Trump sacked H.R. McMaster as his national security adviser on Thursday. The Japanese yen spiked against the dollar on rising risk aversion despite ongoing political scandal in Japan.
The U.S. dollar index that measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of six major currencies shed 0.06% to 90.09 at ET 10:28PM.
The tumultuous developments in the White House this week have sent shockwaves to the market and investors are looking for cues of what the president might do next. This week the market saw Trump firing his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his aide Steve Goldstein and now McMaster, following chief economic advisor Gary Cohen's departure last week.
The Trump administration is poised to be populated by hawkish officials who echo Trump's protectionism, reviving market's fear of a global trade war ignited by the tariff plans that the White House supported.
The dollar plunged 0.33% against the yen with the USD/JPY pair trading at 105.99, breaking the 106 mark. In face of the looming instability in the U.S. political arena, investors stocked up the anti-risk Japanese yen instead of the dollar, furthering pushing up the yen in Asia.
Japan also saw political turmoil this week, as prime minister Shinzo Abe was reportedly aware of the forged documents before they got unveiled by the media. Abe's wife was accused of offering sharp discount in land sale to a school operator.
The AUD/USD pair eased 0.10% to trade at 0.7790 as the dollar was slowly recovering. The Reserve Bank of Australia is said to be holding the interest rates into 2019.
Elsewhere, The People's Bank of China set the fix rate of yuan against the dollar at 6.3340 versus previous day's 6.3141. The USD/CNY traded at 6.3314, up 0.18%. U.S.-China trade tensions are getting intense after U.S. tariffs announcement on Chinese imports. China’s Foreign Ministry said that a trade war is not in anyone's interest. Meanwhile, PBOC injected 327billion yuan via one-year Medium term Lending Facility at 3.25%.