The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, fell to as low as 95.088 on Friday, before slipping as low as 95.065 during Asia trade on Monday, marking the lowest levels since September — before the U.S. presidential election.
The greenback also touched multi-month lows against the euro, the British pound and the Australian dollar.
But Ray Attrill, co-head of foreign-exchange strategy at National Australia Bank, told CNBC’s “Street Signs” on Monday that the data didn’t fully explain the dollar’s weakness.
“There’s more to it than just the data continues to underperform expectations,” Attrill said, pointing to historical models of the greenback’s relationship with interest rates. “The dollar is trading 5-6 percent weaker than where it should be purely on the back of interest rates.”
Like Clarida, Attrill pointed to the health-care legislation debate in Congress.
“It’s unlikely they can bring that to the floor this week,” he said. “That’s further going to play to the so-called Trump discount, because I think the view is that rightly or wrongly, that if we can’t get health-care reform done, then we can’t move on to the fiscal agenda — in particular tax reform.”
Of course, other aspects of Trump’s agenda may not face such a tough audience as health care.
The administration also reportedly has “learned its lesson” from the health-care legislation debacle, and was planning a more coordinated approach to tax reform.
On Sunday, Axios reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that the White House had engaged in high-level planning and organization on the tax effort.
— CNBC’s Patti Domm contributed to this article.