Trump projected that the dollar would gather momentum as the U.S. economy expands. Following the president’s remarks, the dollar pared its decline that was triggered the day before when Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said a weak dollar benefited the U.S. economy, which many observers took as a indirect support for a weak dollar outlook.
Mnuchin’s comments on a weak dollar on a CNBC-moderated panel at Davos was interpretted as a stark contrast to America’s long-standing policy for a strong dollar.
“Whatever the intent was, the fact they did it right after these trade actions on washing machines and solar panels suggest it’s something more thought out. You saw Mnuchin was trying to walk it back, and [Commerce Secretary Wilbur] Ross tried to walk it back,” Win Thin, senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman, told CNBC. “The dollar was being sold even before these comments. There’s other stuff going on. Our view is the rest of the world is getting better quickly, so the U.S. does not stand out so much.”
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