The euro on Friday sank to its lowest against the greenback in more than a year as a plunging Turkish lira sparked broad risk aversion, with investors worried about contagion to European banks.
Turkey’s lira plummeted as much as 18 percent on Friday as worries about Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s influence over monetary policy and worsening US relations snowballed into a market panic.
The euro was hurt after the Financial Times reported that the European Central Bank had concerns about banks in Spain, Italy and France and their exposure to Turkey’s woes.
Both currencies added to losses after US President Donald Trump said he had authorized a doubling of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Turkey.
“Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time!” Trump said on Twitter.
Exposure to Turkey could affect European banks’ bottom lines “and could have a domino effect throughout Europe as people begin to pull out of those banks and into the US. That’s why we’ve seen a spike in the dollar,” said Gregan Anderson, macroeconomic strategist at brokerage Bulltick LLC.
The euro dropped below technical support at US$1.15 to US$1.1414, down 0.97 percent on the day and the lowest since July last year.
For the week, the common currency fell 1.3 percent against the US dollar.
Against the yen, the euro slid 1.35 percent to ¥126.30, a more than two-month low and down nearly 2 percent for the week.
“You’ve had a fairly sharp move lower in the euro and it’s broken through key technical levels as well,” said Richard Franulovich, head of FX strategy at Westpac Banking Corp in New York.
Erdogan earlier told Turks to exchange gold and hard currency into lira, framing the crisis as a “national battle” against economic enemies.
“He spoke today sounding very combative and defiant instead of possibly offering a bit of fig leaf to the US,” Franulovich said.
The flight from risky assets heaped pressure on commodity-linked currencies, including the Australian dollar, which fell 1 percent to US$0.7280, an 18-month low.
In Taipei, the New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar rose, losing NT$0.082 to close at NT$30.708, little changed from last week’s NT$30.706.
The US dollar index edged only slightly higher after data on Friday showed that US core consumer prices rose 0.2 percent last month, in line with economists’ expectations and the same gain as in May and June. The index rose 1.2 percent for the week.
The British pound on Friday dropped to its lowest in more than a year on concerns about a “hard” Brexit.
Additional reporting by CNA, with staff writer
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