Sell “America” reemerges after Trump’s tariff defiance – USD/JPY, Gold, Hang Seng Index intraday outlook

• Tariff escalation despite court setback: President Trump rejected the Supreme Court’s ruling against his 10% baseline tariffs and moved to lift them to 15% under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act, raising fresh policy uncertainty and reviving the “Sell America” narrative.
• Risk-off market reaction: The US dollar weakened, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures fell, while gold rallied as investors sought safe havens amid renewed trade tensions and legal uncertainty over tariff policy.
• Diverging technical setups: USD/JPY remains bearish below 154.65/154.95, gold is testing key $5,170 resistance with breakout risk, and the Hang Seng Index shows short-term bullish momentum above 26,615 support.

US President Trump has refused to back down on his global tariffs policy after the US Supreme Court ruled against his use of his reciprocal tariffs enacted last year under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), in turn, deemed the global baseline tariff rate of 10% as illegal.

Trump called the Supreme Court verdict “unpatriotic” and vowed to press on the current White House’s aggressive trade policy stance to circumvent the Supreme Court’s ruling by imposing an increase in the global reciprocal tariff to 15% from 10% with immediate effect via a social media post on Saturday, 21 February.

Trump is applying the new baseline tariff under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act, which allows the president to impose tariffs for 150 days without congressional approval. Beyond the 150 days, securing congressional approval is likely to prove challenging for the White House because Democrats and several Republicans have opposed elements of Trump’s trade policy.

The latest cloud of uncertainty over the US tariff policy has triggered another bout of the “Sell America” narrative, where the US dollar weakened further in today’s Asia session (US Dollar Index shed -0.2%), S&P 500, and Nasdaq 100 e-mini futures dropped by 0.7% and 0.9% respectively. Gold (XAU/USD) jumped by 0.8% (see Fig. 1) at the time of writing.

Let’s dissect the short-term trajectory of USD/JPY, Gold (XAU/USD), and Hang Seng Index.

Bearish bias below 154.65/154.95 short-term pivotal resistance, and a break below 153.83 key near-term support opens scope for further potential weakness to expose the next intermediate support of 152.65/152.20 (see Fig. 2).

However, a clearance and an hourly close above 154.95 invalidates the bearish tone for a squeeze up towards the next intermediate resistances at 155.66 and 156.36.

Gold (XAU/USD) ended last Friday, 20 February, US session with a daily return of 2.2% and extends its gains further in today’s Asia session with an intraday rally of almost 1% to test a key short-term resistance at $5,160 (also the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement of the prior minor down move from 29 January 2026 all-time high to 2 February 2026 low) (see Fig. 3).

The hourly RSI momentum indicator has started to inch downwards from its overbought reading of 82. Mixed elements, neutral between $5,170 and $4,960 (also close to the 20-day moving average).

Only a clearance and hourly close above $5,170 ignites a potential bullish move towards $5,448 and $5,606 (current all-time high).

On the flipside, failure to hold at $4,960 sees another round of choppy sideways downward drift towards the range supports of $4,842 and $4,703 (also the 50-day moving average).

The price actions of the Hong Kong 33 CFD index (a proxy of the Hang Seng Index futures) have cleared above its 20-day moving average, which has acted as a near-term resistance since 12 February 2026 (see Fig. 4).

In addition, its hourly RSI momentum indicator has staged a bullish breakout above its former descending resistance at around the 50 level, which suggests a potential revival of short-term bullish momentum.

Bullish bias above 26,615 key short-term pivotal support for a potential push up to test 27,228 intermediate resistance follow by the 27,500 major resistance.

On the other hand, a break and an hourly close below 26,615 negates the bullish tone for a potential drift down to retest the minor range support of 26,285 (in place since 20 January 2026).