Dollar slips as Sino-U.S. trade optimism wanes, retail data eyed
The U.S. dollar lost its footing against major peers on Thursday ahead of retail sales later in the day that could offer clues on U.S. consumer strength in the face of tariff risks, while excitement over a Sino-US trade deal faded.
The greenback has given up most of its gains from Monday after the United States and China announced a 90-day pause on most of the tariffs imposed on each other's goods since early April, easing fears of a global recession.
"Markets have exhausted the positivity from the U.S.-China trade talk," said Benjamin Ford, strategist at Macro Hive in London.
Safe-haven currencies gained with the Japanese yen strengthening 0.6% to 145.88 per dollar after having touched a one-month low of 148.65 earlier this week. The Swiss franc firmed 0.6% to 0.8376 versus the dollar.
The euro tacked on 0.2% to $1.12.
Most Asian currencies advanced versus the dollar too, led by a surge in the South Korean won for the second day after news on Wednesday that officials from South Korea and the U.S. met last week to discuss the dollar/won exchange rate led to a bout of dollar selling.
The won surged 0.7% at 1,397.68 per dollar. The sudden lurch in the won was reminiscent of an unprecedented two-day surge in Taiwan's currency at the start of May, which also coincided with the end of U.S.-Taiwan trade talks in Washington.
The Taiwan dollar was 0.5% stronger to the dollar on Thursday.
A Bloomberg report on Wednesday, however, said the U.S. is not negotiating for a weaker dollar as part of tariff talks, which has helped calm some of the nervousness in the markets.
The dollar index, which measures the U.S. unit against six other currencies, was 0.2% lower at 100.81, but on course to eke out a 0.4% gain for the week. Even so, the index is down nearly 7% in 2025.
U.S. President Donald Trump's aggressive and erratic trade policies have rattled investors' confidence in the dollar, leading to a sharp fall in U.S. assets. While stock markets have recouped April losses, the dollar remains under pressure.
A major market focus on Thursday will be U.S. retail sales data, and investors are also going to be looking out for more details on possible trade deals after the U.S.-China tariff truce.
"Hard data on US personal consumption have so far shown resilience despite weakness in consumer sentiment," said UniCredit investment strategist Thomas Strobel in a note, adding that U.S. data later in the day will test whether this resilience continued after sweeping U.S. tariffs last month.
U.S. Treasury yields were elevated and the benchmark 10-year yield rose to a one-month top, in part due to worries over Trump's budget package that would add trillions of dollars to the U.S. debt.
Sterling firmed 0.2% to $1.329 against the U.S. dollar after data showed the UK economy unexpectedly grew in March, giving a boost to the government and finance minister Rachel Reeves.
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25 minutes ago
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Senate Republicans seethe as blue-state lawmakers dig in
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33 minutes ago
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Israel Strikes Iran—Trump Warns Of More Attacks Unless Iran Signs Nuclear Deal (Live Updates)
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These strikes threaten not only the lives of innocent civilians but the stability of the entire Middle East and the safety of American citizens and forces.' The attack comes a day after several U.S. embassies in the Middle East were evacuated over 'heightened security risks' in the region. President Donald Trump, who has opposed immediate military action against Iran in hopes a nuclear deal could be reached, said Thursday afternoon, prior to the strike, 'it looks like something could very well happen' and that the U.S. was "fairly close' on a nuclear agreement. Trump also said an attack by Israel 'could blow' a potential agreement, noting there is a 'chance of massive conflict." Will Israel Strike Iran? Trump Evacuates 4 Middle East Embassies As Fears Grow (Forbes) An Israeli military official says his country targeted Iranian nuclear sites (Forbes)
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34 minutes ago
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Apple's Siri Struggle: New Report Explains What Went Wrong
PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing. A lot has been said about Siri in the past year after Apple failed to deliver on its promise of a supercharged voice assistant. Multiple delays and lawsuits later, we now have details on what went wrong at Cupertino. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple rushed the development of its AI features after OpenAI's ChatGPT launched in 2022. Things began falling apart when the team tried merging Siri's old code with the new one. Sources tell Gurman that Apple had no plans to launch Apple Intelligence until ChatGPT arrived. Apple's software chief, Craig Federighi, realized the chatbot's potential a month after its launch when he used it to write code for a personal project. Soon, Federighi, along with Apple's then AI head, John Giannandrea, and a few other executives, started meeting with OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI companies to learn more about these AI models. Federighi also told his team that iOS 18 should infuse as many AI-powered features into an iPhone as possible. Giannandrea then assembled a team and started working on building large language models (LLMs) for AI features. However, as Apple inched closer to Apple Intelligence's public reveal in June 2024, internal tests showed that the chatbot lagged significantly behind ChatGPT, with OpenAI's product delivering 25% better accuracy. The desperate need for AI forced Apple to look for partners. For stronger user privacy, Giannandrea suggested Google, but Apple announced OpenAI as its first AI partner at WWDC 24. Many AI-powered features were announced at the June event, including the ability to summon ChatGPT for requests Siri can't fulfill. A delay pushed that feature to December 2024, but many others that were announced are still MIA, resulting in lawsuits and a new chapter in Apple's ever-growing Siri struggles. Some Apple Intelligence features were too buggy when Federighi started testing them on his personal phone before iOS 18.4. Worse, the communication between Apple's product development and marketing teams was poor. Apple had to pull down TV ads for iPhone 16 features that were nowhere close to being ready. Internally, Giannandrea has absorbed much of the blame for Siri's failure. Several employees claim that Giannandrea lacked urgency for generative AI; another Apple executive says Giannandrea believed consumers don't trust it enough and that AI agents are far away from replacing humans, Bloomberg reports. The exec has blamed overhyped marketing. CEO Tim Cook eventually lost faith in Giannandrea and replaced him with Vision Pro's head, Mike Rockwell, in March. Aside from these issues, Siri's code was seen to have a major technical flaw. To add AI features, Apple engineers split Siri's infrastructure in half. When they tried to merge Siri's new AI features with legacy features, such as setting the alarm, things started falling apart. A team in Zurich is now creating a new software architecture built entirely on an LLM-based engine, called LLM Siri. Their aim is to make Siri more conversational and better at processing information. In the EU, Apple will also let users replace Siri with third-party assistants, according to a source. According to an earlier New York Times report, some of Siri's announced but unreleased features are expected this fall. Meanwhile, Apple is prepping for a huge iOS revamp scheduled for WWDC 25 next month.
