Investing.com - The dollar fell to two-week lows against the safe haven yen on Monday as a fresh escalation in tensions between the U.S. and its trading partners sparked a flight to safety.
USD/JPY hit a two-week low of 109.38 overnight and was trading at 109.49 by 10:08 AM GMT (14:08 GMT), off 0.43% for the day.
Market sentiment was hit after the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. President Donald Trump is drawing up plans to bar many Chinese companies from investing in U.S. technology firms and to block additional technology exports to Beijing.
The report added to concerns over the latest flare up in global trade tensions after Trump on Friday threatened to impose a 20% tariff on car imports from the EU.
Trump’s threat came after the EU imposed tariffs on a range of U.S. imports in response to steel and aluminum tariffs from the White House.
The euro was also lower against the yen, with EUR/JPY down 0.22% to 127.89.
The single currency pushed higher against the dollar, with EUR/USD rising 0.23% to 1.1681.
The euro had risen against the dollar on Friday, buoyed by data showing that second quarter growth is likely to have been solid and by fresh assurances from Italy’s new government that the country would not leave the euro area.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a basket of six major currencies, slid 0.13% to 94.07. The index ended the previous week down 0.63% having retreated from an eleven-month high of 95.22 reached on Thursday.
The pound was a touch higher, with GBP/USD edging up 0.11% to 1.3276.
The commodity linked currencies were broadly lower as oil prices gave back some of Friday’s strong gains as trade worries weighed.
Oil prices had risen on Friday after major oil exporters agreed to a modest increase in production.
The Australian dollar was lower, with AUD/USD down 0.52% to 0.7406. The Aussie had fallen to 13-month lows last week amid fears over the U.S. - China trade spat.
The Canadian dollar was also weaker, with USD/CAD climbing 0.32% to 1.3310. The loonie hit a one-year low on Friday amid volatility in oil prices.
Elsewhere, the Turkish lira was slightly lower against the dollar, with USD/TRY rising 0.3% to 4.6913 after having fallen as much as 1.6% earlier.
The lira had initially rallied after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was re-elected, seeing off strong opposition to tighten his grip on the nation he has ruled for 15 years.