World Bulletin / News Desk

The dollar on Wednesday staged a small recovery from a hefty sell-off that came after Donald Trump and one of his key economic advisers hit out at other nations using their weaker currencies to gain a trade advantage.

Peter Navarro, who advised Trump during the campaign and heads the White House's new National Trade Council, said in an interview with the Financial Times that Germany "continues to exploit other countries in the EU as well as the US with an 'implicit Deutsche mark' that is grossly undervalued".

Later, Trump told a meeting of business executives that China and Japan had "played the money market and the devaluation market", suggesting they had been keeping their currencies weak to boost trade.

The comments sent the yen and euro surging against the dollar Tuesday. The US unit clawed back slightly Wednesday although most high-yielding currencies, including the South Korean won, Australian dollar and Indonesian rupiah, held gains.

The greenback's struggles this week are a far cry from the rally that followed Trump's November election win, when investors bet his plans to cut taxes and spend big on infrastructure would fire the US economy, stoke inflation and lead to interest rate hikes.