The dollar advanced after US President Donald Trump said he wanted “much bigger” universal tariffs.
Most Asian shares fell as concern over high valuations in the artificial-intelligence sector stretched into a second day.
The US currency strengthened against all its Group-of-10 peers as the president said he wanted far larger across-the-board tariffs than the 2.5% said to be favored by new Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, adding to signals he is preparing widespread levies to boost the US supply chain.
Trump also said he would soon put tariffs on foreign-produced semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and some metals to compel producers to manufacture in the country.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped 0.6% with Japan’s largest technology firms among the biggest losers.
That was after US equities had tumbled Monday as a cheap AI model from Chinese startup DeepSeek sparked fears about lofty valuations.
Many Asian markets, including China, South Korea and Taiwan are shut for the Lunar New Year holidays. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index climbed 0.4% following Trump’s latest tariff comments.
The risk-sensitive Australian and New Zealand dollars both fell at least 0.5%, while the Thai baht tumbled 0.7%, leading losses in emerging Asia. China’s offshore yuan also weakened.
