Yuan, a Chinese currency, recorded its lowest during offshore trading on Monday, February 3, while Mexico's peso and Canada's dollar tumbled to multi-year troughs after US President Donald Trump slapped the countries with tariffs, triggering fears of an escalating trade war among countries, reported the news agency Reuters.
In January, US President Trump had promised that he would impose duties on Canada and Mexico with duties of 25% and China with a 10% levy, calling the measures necessary to combat illegal immigration and the drug trade.
The Euro also dropped to a more than two-year low today as the US dollar gain was broad. According to the Reuters report, the Swiss franc—despite typically acting as a safe haven—is sliding to its weakest since May. Cryptocurrency Bitcoin fell back below $100,000 to its lowest in nearly three weeks.
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The tariffs, outlined in three executive orders, are due to take effect at 12:01 a.m. ET (0501 GMT) on Tuesday. The US dollar advanced 0.7% to 7.2552 yuan in the offshore market early in Asia's morning, having earlier pushed to the record high of 7.3765 yuan.