Four thousand U.S. dollars are counted out by a banker counting currency at a bank in Westminster, Colorado Nov. 3, 2009. Photo by Reuters
The U.S. dollar surged to a historic high against the Vietnamese dong Tuesday as it fell against major currencies.
Vietcombank sold the greenback at VND26,120, a 0.62% jump from Monday. The currency rose 0.19% to VND26,200 on the black market.
The State Bank of Vietnam hiked its reference rate by 0.05% to VND24,898.
Globally, the safe havens yen and Swiss franc held near six-month highs on Tuesday while the U.S. dollar nursed broad losses as financial markets grappled with mounting recession worries in the wake of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, Reuters reported.
The currency markets were fragile but eerily calm in Asian trade after a volatile 24-hour period where the dollar reversed heavy losses against the safe haven currencies as traders took stock of the risk of a rapidly escalating trade war.
The yen was last slightly stronger at 147.325 per dollar, near the six-month high of 144.82 touched on Friday. The Swiss franc last fetched 0.85665 per U.S. dollar, also near a six-month high touched in the previous session.
While the dollar is typically known as a safe-haven asset, that status seems to be eroding as uncertainty over tariffs and concern over their impact on U.S. growth intensify.
The euro rose 0.58% to $1.0967, not far from the six-month high it hit last week, while sterling was 0.44% higher at $1.27795, inching away from the one-month low it touched in the previous session.
The dollar index, which measures the U.S. currencies against six other units, was 0.44% lower on Tuesday. The index is down over 1% since the tariffs were announced last week.
