US Dollar Rallies on Trade War Fears, ISM Manufacturing Data

The US dollar rallied against all of its major rivals today. Market analysts explained the rally by risk aversion caused by trade war fears, though many also mentioned the unexpectedly positive manufacturing report.
Investors were nervous today, anticipating that the planned tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods may take effect as soon as Thursday. The lack of progress in NAFTA talks between the United States and Canada also made traders concerned. The Bloomberg Spot US Dollar Index climbed 0.41% to 95.532 during the current trading session.
Adding to the strength of the US currency was the report from the Institute for Supply Management that showed an increase of the manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index from 58.1% in July to 61.3% in August. That is instead of falling to 57.6% as analysts had predicted. Furthermore, the August figure was the highest since May 2004.
EUR/USD dropped from 1.1616 to 1.1573 as of 16:40 GMT today, touching the low of 1.1530 intraday. GBP/USD slid from 1.2866 to 1.2836. USD/JPY jumped from 111.02 to 111.38.

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