Peso hits 1-month high on dollar’s slump

THE PESO jumped to a one-month high against the dollar on Wednesday as US President Donald J. Trump said the greenback’s value remains “great” despite its recent slide.

The local unit ended at P58.74 versus the dollar, surging by 34.5 centavos from its P59.085 finish on Tuesday, data from the Bankers Association of the Philippines showed.

This was the peso’s strongest close in more than a month or since ending at P58.71 on Dec. 26.

The local currency opened Wednesday’s trading session stronger at P58.85 against the dollar. Its intraday best was at P58.69, while its worst showing was at just P58.90 against the greenback.

Dollars traded rose to $1.46 billion from $1 billion on Tuesday.

“The dollar-peso closed lower, dragged by broad dollar weakness due to Trump’s ‘Sell America’ rhetoric and potential joint intervention by the US and Japan in the foreign exchange market [to correct the yen’s slide],” a trader said by phone.

The peso jumped as the dollar hit a four-year low on Mr. Trump’s comments, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said in a Viber message.

For Thursday, the trader sees the peso ranging from P58.50 to P58.90 per dollar, while Mr. Ricafort expects it to move between P58.65 and P58.85.

The dollar headed for its biggest weekly fall since last April on Wednesday after Mr. Trump brushed off this month’s slide, triggering even deeper losses against the euro, yen and pound ahead of the Federal Reserve policy decision, Reuters reported.

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the US currency against six others, was 0.22% higher at 96.114, but it remained near four-year lows, having lost nearly 2.8% since last Wednesday, its steepest weekly decline since last April’s “Liberation Day” market turmoil.

Mr. Trump said on Tuesday the value of the dollar was “great,” when asked whether he thought it had declined too much. Traders took his comments as a signal to intensify dollar selling.

While the president’s comments were not exactly new, they came at a time when the dollar has been under pressure as traders braced for a possible coordinated currency intervention by US and Japanese authorities to stabilize the yen.

“It shows there’s a crisis of confidence in the US dollar,” said Kyle Rodda, a senior market analyst at Capital.com. “It would appear that while the Trump administration sticks with its erratic trade, foreign and economic policy, this weakness could persist.”

The dollar tumbled over 9% in 2025 and has started the year on the back foot, already down about 2.3% in January as investors grappled with Mr. Trump’s erratic approach to trade and international diplomacy, fears over the Federal Reserve’s independence and huge increases in public spending.

Investors’ focus will be on the Federal Reserve’s policy decision later in the day, where the central bank is expected to stand pat in a pause that investors see lasting beyond US central bank chief Jerome H. Powell’s final meetings in March and April. — Aaron Michael C. Sy with Reuters