US dollar rebounds slightly, but remains one of the worst performers this year

The Dollar crawled off the floor in the early Thursday hours, but it’s still stuck near the bottom in 2025. The mini comeback followed US President Donald Trump’s decision to cool off on firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, and a change in tone from the White House on its trade fight with China.

Both were enough to stop the bleeding — for now — but no one in the market’s pretending the Dollar suddenly found its strength.

After slipping below 140 yen earlier in the week, the Dollar rebounded to 142.75 yen by Thursday. That move came after hitting a technical support line on the charts — a number traders have been watching closely all month. 

It also got a lift from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who said the US didn’t have any specific exchange rate in mind ahead of his meeting with his Japanese counterpart. That’s trader-speak for “we don’t care where it goes,” but even that half-assed answer was enough to give the Dollar a pulse.

Bessent rejects tariff cut, calls trade freeze with China “unsustainable”

Scott made it clear the current trade freeze between the US and China isn’t going to last. He called the de facto embargo “unsustainable,” though he also said the US wouldn’t be the first to lower tariffs, even with many of them sitting well above 100% on Chinese goods. So it’s still a staring contest — but with one side starting to blink.

In Europe, the Dollar has managed to rise from its 3.5-year low of $1.1572 per euro, but that rally hit some resistance in Asia. By Thursday morning, it had slipped back to $1.1338. That came after some minor selling kicked in. Francesco Pesole, a strategist at ING, said the market’s still leaning bearish.

“We still think the balance of risks remains skewed to the downside for USD in the near term,” Francesco wrote in a client note. He added that the EUR/USD pair is still being driven almost entirely by Dollar behavior. “Another leg higher above $1.15 remains possible should fears about the Fed’s independence take centre stage again.”

Currencies tied to growth — especially in the Pacific — are also struggling to find direction. The Australian dollar, after breaking above $0.64 earlier this week, dropped to $0.6355 by Thursday. Joe Capurso, a strategist at Commonwealth Bank, said it could test support around $0.6286, which is its 50-day moving average if fears about the global economy keep spreading.

The New Zealand dollar held steady at $0.5951, with no real movement either way. Over in Europe, the British pound stayed at $1.3263 while the Swiss franc sat at 0.8290 per dollar, both currencies still digesting earlier sell-offs. In Asia, the Chinese yuan weakened slightly to 7.2980 per dollar, showing a bit of stress from the overall dollar movement.

Meanwhile, crypto traders didn’t care much. Bitcoin blasted higher to $92,732 in Asian trading, following US stock gains and ignoring the Dollar move completely. And in peak 2025 fashion, Trump’s meme coin — $TRUMP — exploded overnight after a tweet pumped a gala dinner for the top 220 buyers of the coin.