What to make of the USD recovery? – Commerzbank

After reaching its highest level since April at the beginning of the week, EUR/USD fell again yesterday. Some market voices attribute the US dollar's recovery to the upcoming US labour market data. If these show a continued robust labour market, as suggested by yesterday's JOLTs report, this would reinforce the Fed's decision to refrain from easing monetary policy and thus dampen expectations of interest rate cuts. Clearly, a central bank that sticks to unchanged interest rates in order to maintain price stability, despite economic risks and political pressure, is an important pillar of support for the currency. We have already pointed this out. A credible monetary policy that responds to a tariff-induced inflation shock would normally also have been an argument for an appreciation of the dollar in the wake of the introduction of tariffs, Commerzbank's Head of FX and Commodity Research Thu Lan Nguyen reports.

USD to remain weak in the long term

"One of the most important arguments against the greenback is the unpredictable US (tariff) policy, which could cause considerable damage to the US economy. But the uncertainty goes both ways: it is just as conceivable that the US president will do a U-turn again – we have seen that often enough. Let us remember, for example, the reduction in tariffs on China, albeit only for 90 days, which led to a significant rally in the dollar."

"So it is not the case that, alongside the USD doomsday scenarios, USD-positive scenarios are completely unthinkable. Let us assume, for example, that the US government lowers its reciprocal tariffs for all trading partners to the minimum of 10% or even below, the impact on the US economy is correspondingly less severe than expected, and at the same time the Fed refrains from cutting interest rates. In this case, the dollar would undoubtedly appreciate significantly. This risk must be taken into account just as much as all the negative scenarios and could explain why the US currency has not depreciated even more significantly so far."

"Of course, this does not change the fact that we expect the USD to remain weak in the long term – the risks to the dollar are too great and justify a substantial risk premium. However, the weakness of the USD is unlikely to be a one-way street, i.e. it cannot be ruled out or it would not be surprising if we saw the US currency recover from time to time."