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The US dollar weakened on Monday as president-elect Donald Trump’s appointment of Scott Bessent halted the currency’s blistering post-election rally.
The dollar index, which tracks a basket of currencies such as the yen and euro, was down as much as 0.7 per cent in Asia, before paring gains to trade down 0.5 per cent.
Investors hope that hedge fund manager Bessent, who will be responsible for delivering Trump’s economic agenda, will be able to soften some of the president-elect’s aggressive tariff policies and also curb a widening fiscal deficit.
European markets opened up, with the Stoxx Europe 600 rising 0.3 per cent. The US 10-year Treasury yield, a benchmark for economic expectations, fell 0.07 percentage points to 4.35 per cent. Bond yields move inversely to prices.
Major Asian trading partners of the US were buoyed by news of the appointment, which came after market close on Friday. Japan’s export-heavy Nikkei 225 index and South Korea’s Kospi both closed up 1.3 per cent.