Peso gains slightly on lingering trade war concerns

The peso strengthened slightly on Monday, July 23, as the dollar weakened amid sustained concerns over the the trade spat between the United States and China.
The local unit ended Monday’s session at P53.48 versus the greenback, stronger by three centavos from the P53.51-per-dollar finish on Friday.
Dollars traded declined to $399.6 million from the $474.05 million that exchanged hands the previous session.
In a Reuters report, the dollar index was down 0.1% at 94.327, slipping further from a one-year high of 95.656 touched on July 19, on the back of the remarks made by President Donald J. Trump.
In an interview with CNBC aired on Friday, Mr. Trump said he was ready to slap tariffs on all Chinese imports worth $500 billion, escalating trade policy tensions.
Ruben Carlo O. Asuncion, chief economist at UnionBank of the Philippines, Inc., said that the weakness of the dollar may have come from lingering concerns over the impact of the trade war.
“This weakness may have come from the perception on the impact of the trade war on the world economy with major players calling out the US for restraint and urging talks to resolve issues,” Mr. Asuncion said in a text message. — Karl Angelo N. Vidal