Dollar Rises After Trump Tariff Threats, But Pares Gains Against Some Major Counterparts

(RTTNews) - After a mild setback during the fag end of the European session, the U.S. dollar edged higher in the New York session on Tuesday with investors assessing the impact of President-elect Donald Trump's pledge to impose tariffs on all imports from Mexico, Canada and China.

However, the dollar turned a bit easy against some of its major counterparts and weakened against a few after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting showed officials believe it will be appropriate to "gradually" lower interest rates.

In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said he would impose a 25 percent tariff on all products from Mexico and Canada on his first day in office, blaming the countries for the influx of illegal immigrants and illicit drugs into the U.S.

"This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!" Trump said.

Trump said in a subsequent post that he would also impose an additional 10 percent tariff on Chinese products, claiming the country has not done enough to stop the "massive amounts of drugs, in particular Fentanyl, being sent into the United States."

With Trump recently announced he intends to nominate Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary, traders may be optimistic the former president will not following through on his threats. Bessent has previously called for Trump's planned tariff increases to be implemented gradually.

In economic news, a report released by the Commerce Department said new home sales saw a 17.3% nosedive to an annual rate of 610,000 in October after spiking by 7% to a rate of 738,000 in September. Economists had expected new home sales to decrease by 1.1% to a rate of 730,000.

After reporting a significant rebound by U.S. consumer confidence in the previous month, the Conference Board released a report on Tuesday showing consumer confidence continued to improve in November. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index rose to 111.7 in November after surging to an upwardly revised 109.6 in October.

The dollar index, which dropped to 106.49, recovered to 107.10 before easing to 106.90, up marginally from previous close.

Against the Euro, the dollar gained marginally at 1.0490, and against Pound Sterling, it was flat at 1.2569 after having firmed to 1.2508 from 1.2617.

The dollar weakened against the Japanese currency, dropping to 153.04 from 154.19. Against the Aussie, the dollar strengthened to 0.6465 from 0.6504.

The Swiss franc recovered to 0.8865 against the greenback from 0.8896, while the Loonie weakened to 1.4061 a unit of the U.S. currency.