USD flat; Trump wants Hong Kong problems solved before making trade deal

The U.S. dollar was flat on Monday in Asia as traders remained cautious ahead of Fed minutes due later this week.

The U.S. dollar index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies was largely unchanged at 98.072 by 12:37 AM ET (04:37 GMT).

All eyes will be on the Federal Reserve this week as traders await fresh insights on how the central bank may respond to growing fears of a recession after the U.S. Treasury yield inverted last week.

The Fed will publish the minutes of its July meeting on Wednesday, while Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will deliver a speech on Friday.

Meanwhile, the USD/CNY pair slipped 0.1% to 7.0446.

The People’s Bank of China sets the yuan’s reference rate at 7.0365 today, versus 7.0312 on Friday.

Developments on the Sino-U.S. trade front were in focus. U.S. President Donald Trump insisted their trade war with China did no harm to the U.S. and that the economy is “doing tremendously well.”

“Our consumers are rich, I gave a tremendous tax cut, and they’re loaded up with money,” Trump said on Sunday. The president also reiterated that he is not ready to make a trade deal with China, hinting that he wants to see Beijing deal with the ongoing protests in Hong Kong first.

“I would like to see Hong Kong worked out in a very humanitarian fashion,” Trump said. “I think it would be very good for the trade deal.”

Tech giant Huawei was also under the spotlight today as U.S. President Donald Trump said he does not want to do business with the company “at all because it is a national security threat.”

The Wall Street Journal and Reuters previously reported that the U.S. was preparing to extend a licence that would allow Huawei to buy parts from U.S. companies for 90 days. The current agreement will end today.

“We’ll see what happens. I’m making a decision tomorrow,” Trump said.

The USD/JPY pair was unchanged at 106.36. The safe-haven yen was under pressure earlier today on expectations that policymakers would unleash new stimulus amid slowing global economies.

On Saturday, the People’s Bank of China said it would improve the mechanism used to establish the loan prime rate so it could “use market-based reform methods to help lower real lending rates.”

The AUD/USD pair inched up 0.1% to 0.6783, while the NZD/USD pair slipped 0.1%.