Greenback is still firm on China-US trade war concerns

On Friday, the evergreen buck ascended versus a pack of its rivals and reached a more than 14-month maximum versus the Chinese Yuan, with financial markets affected by concerns over soaring trade tensions between China and the United States.

On Thursday, China pledged to adequately respond if America would try lifting duties on this Asian country’s exports, after American leader instructed his trade officials to consider lifting duties to up to 25% from 10% on approximately $200 billion in China’s imports to America.

However, America imports far more products from China than this Asian leading economy imports from the USA. So, this trade conflict is far more dangerous for China’s economy.

Besides this, China's offshore Yuan that has been suppressed for months because of worries over the trade conflict with America slumped to 6.8975 per dollar, which is its lowest value since May of last year, before stabilizing at about 6.8888.

The Chinese government is eager to have the moderate weakness engineered, but it’s not easy to make it come true, as some financial analysts pointed out.

Estimating the greenback’s purchasing potential versus its several rivals, the USD index reached a two-week maximum of 95.211.

Meanwhile, the common currency approached a two-week minimum of $1.1591.

The evergreen buck stood still versus the Japanese yen, showing 111.70 yen. Japan and America are expected to hold their first bilateral trade negotiations on August 9 in Washington.

The Australian dollar, considered to be a proxy for Chinese surge due to Australia's export-reliant economy, struggled to ascend because China-US trade clashes overwhelmed upbeat retail sales data at home.

Australia’s currency hit $0.7370, which is a bit higher than a two-week minimum of $0.7355 hit yesterday.

The UK pound showed $1.3020 versus the greenback, drifting away from a two-week minimum of $1.3006 reached yesterday.