President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Scott Bessent to oversee the US Treasury is taking some heat out of the dollar’s recent rally.
The US currency weakened against all Group-of-10 peers with the euro, pound and Aussie leading the gains against the greenback. The Mexican peso, Thai baht and Chinese yuan outperformed among emerging market currencies.
The dollar notched its longest stretch of weekly advances in more than a year on Friday as traders continued to price in Trump’s fiscal policies including sweeping trade tariffs and persistent economic growth. This pushed the euro to a two-year low against the dollar while the Swiss franc slid to its weakest since July.
Market participants surveyed by Bloomberg following Bessent’s appointment see the hedge fund manager taking a more phased approach on tariffs and attempting to rein in the budget deficit, regarded as positive signs for the US economy and markets.
“Following his other nominations, and the drawn-out battle among the contenders for the Treasury job, you could literally hear the sigh of relief from financial markets participants in the US when Bessent was announced,” Erik Nielsen, chief economics advisor at UniCredit Bank GmbH wrote in a note to clients.
The greenback is due for some consolidation after its “barn-storming run of late due to the Trump trade and stronger economic data flow,” said Jason Wong, a Wellington-based currency strategist at the Bank of New Zealand. “Even if it can make further gains in the months ahead, it is due for a breather.”