Dollar steadies after upbeat Nvidia results; nuclear talks, tariff woes in focus

The U.S. dollar stabilized Thursday after earlier losses on the back of strong earnings from AI giant Nvidia, with traders awaiting details of the latest U.S. tariffs.

At 03:00 ET (08:00 GMT), the Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, traded 0.1% higher to 97.650, but was on track for weekly losses of around 0.2%.

Dollar stable after solid Nvidia result 

The dollar has steadied after beginning the day on the back foot as better-than-expected earnings from Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) boosted investor confidence, weighing on this safe haven.

The world’s most valuable company reported that its January-quarter sales surpassed analyst expectations and forecast current-quarter revenue above market projections.

“Improved sentiment has weighed on the dollar over the past 24 hours, with only the yen taking a worse beating in G10 yesterday,” said analysts at ING, in a note.

Traders are also keeping an eye on the Trump administration’s reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling on February 20 that struck down the president’s emergency tariffs.

The U.S. tariff rate for some countries will rise to 15% or higher from the newly imposed 10%, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Wednesday, without naming any specific trading partners or giving further details. 

Additionally, U.S. and Iranian officials are meeting in Geneva later in the session to discuss a nuclear deal, with U.S. President Donald Trump threatening “bad things” could happen to the Middle East country if meaningful progress is not achieved.

“Any escalation there looks like the most plausible catalyst for a broader dollar rally, given the reassurance from Nvidia’s results and the lack of major data releases,” said ING.

“Overall, we could see some stabilisation in the dollar today, though some downside risks remain as the positive spillover from Nvidia’s earnings may keep markets tilted away from defensive currencies a little longer.”

Euro slips slightly

In Europe, EUR/USD traded 0.1% lower to 1.1798, with Eurozone consumer confidence figures due later in the session.

However, these numbers, as well as inflation data on Friday, are unlikely to impact the single currency significantly with the European Central Bank likely to keep policy rates unchanged for some time to come.

“For now, the EUR:USD short-term rate differential remains unsupportive for EUR/USD, but we haven’t seen enough restoration of confidence in the dollar to call for a major leg lower from here. We still see 1.1750 as a good support level, barring a major escalation in Iran,” said ING.

GBP/USD fell 0.3% to 1.3523, with sterling struggling to benefit from data showing that sentiment in Britain’s business and professional services sector became markedly less negative in the current quarter.

The Confederation of British Industry’s quarterly services sector survey showed that optimism for business and professional services businesses jumped to -3 in February from -50 in November, its highest reading since August 2024.