LONDON, Sept 18, 2018 (News Wires) - The dollar held near seven-week lows against its rivals on Tuesday while riskier currencies gained after US President Donald Trump escalated his trade war with China by imposing 10 per cent tariffs on about $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. While the greenback has benefited from safe-haven flows amid the escalating Sino-US trade conflict in recent months, the rare spot of weakness in the dollar overnight raised concerns about whether investors are starting to worry about the broader impact of the tariffs on the US economy. With the latest US moves widely anticipated by global markets, investors awaited the Chinese response to the latest measures and pushed the dollar below a key technical level, potentially opening the door to more losses. "Unless we see these trade wars start hitting the US consumer directly, this might continue further and we will have to see what the Chinese response will be," said Talib Sheikh, head of multi-asset strategy at Jupiter Asset Management. The dollar index popped up to 94.607 in the early Asian session but gave up its gains to turn lower on the day. It stabilised at 94.57 after falling to 94.35, its lowest since the end of July. With Beijing keeping a firm grip on the renminbi in the aftermath of the latest measures and refusing to let it weaken sharply, sentiment was more optimistic towards emerging market currencies and equities. Stocks in China ended up nearly 2 per cent.
