Struggling Indian rupee seeks respite on dollar pullback amid Greenland dispute

MUMBAI: The Indian rupee , which has been under sustained pressure from portfolio outflows, may find near-term relief on Monday following a pullback in the dollar amid the Greenland dispute. The 1-month non-deliverable forward indicated the rupee will open in the 90.70-90.74 range versus the U.S. dollar. It dropped 0.6% on Friday to settle at 90.8650. President Donald Trump on Saturday vowed to implement a wave of increasing tariffs on European allies until the United States is allowed to buy Greenland. Investors responded to the news by selling the dollar, offloading U.S. equity futures and bought into safe havens. The dollar declined against its major peers and most Asian currencies on Monday. Futures on the S&P 500 index dropped 0.8%, while the euro advanced. “Typically, you would think tariffs being threatened would lead to a weaker euro,” Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at ANZ, Singapore, said. However, “the impact in the FX markets has actually been more towards dollar weakness every time there is heightened policy uncertainty emanating from the U.S.,” he said. European Union ambassadors reached a broad agreement on Sunday to intensify efforts to dissuade Trump from imposing tariffs on European allies, while preparing retaliatory measures should the duties go ahead. “Europe finds itself back in a new, and more severe, tariff fight. At this point, the outcome of these new trade tensions is unclear,” ING Bank said in a note. “What has long been evident is that there is no such thing as trade or tariff certainty anymore.” The flare-up in tensions over Greenland comes at a time when the rupee is already grappling with sustained pressure from persistent equity outflows and increased hedging driven by depreciation expectations. The strain was most evident on Friday when the currency posted its largest one-day decline in nearly two months and inched closer to its all-time low of 91.0750.