U.S. dollar declines after Trump's trade move

NEW YORK, March 23 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar index decreased against other major currencies in late trading on Friday as investors continued to assess U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement to impose tariffs on imported Chinese products.

Despite strong warnings from business groups and trade experts, Trump on Thursday signed a memorandum that could impose tariffs on up to 60 billion U.S. dollars of imports from China, in a unilateral move that triggered market selloff.

According to the presidential memorandum, Trump has directed U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to publish a list of proposed Chinese goods that could be subject to tariffs in 15 days, while the U.S. Treasury Department will have 60 days to propose restrictions on Chinese investment in the United States.

The move prompted the biggest percentage plunges in Wall Street's three major stock indexes in six weeks, with the Dow slumping over 700 points, as investors were agitated by the scale of U.S. tariffs and possible impact on global trade.

The Chinese Embassy in the United States, in response, said "It is a typical unilateral trade protectionist action. China is strongly disappointed and firmly opposes such an action."

On the economic front, U.S. new orders for manufactured durable goods in February increased 7.4 billion U.S. dollars, or 3.1 percent, to 247.7 billion dollars, the Commerce Department said Friday.

In a separate report, the department reported that U.S. sales of new single-family houses in February 2018 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 618,000, which is 0.6 percent below the revised January rate of 622,000, but is 0.5 percent above the February 2017 estimate of 615,000.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, decreased 0.45 percent at 89.453 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro increased to 1.2367 dollars from 1.2306 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound rose to 1.4145 dollars from 1.4109 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar climbed to 0.7713 dollar from 0.7711 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 104.84 Japanese yen, lower than 105.63 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar decreased to 0.9467 Swiss franc from 0.9506 Swiss franc, and it was down to 1.2863 Canadian dollars from 1.2915 Canadian dollars. Enditem