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Turkey is also in focus following President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s surprise decision over the weekend to replace the hawkish central bank governor Naci Agbal with Sahap Kavcioglu.

The move came two days after a sharp rate hike aimed at controlling inflation near 16% and supporting the lira, and has since seen the Turkish currency weaken almost 12% against the dollar, the sharpest move since August 2018.

Turkey’s benchmark stock index, the BIST 100, fell more than 5% in early trading Monday, while European banks exposed to the country weakened, in particular Spain's BBVA (MC:BBVA), which dropped over 6%.

The dollar pushed higher in early European trading Monday, with the Turkish lira particularly hard hit after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan abruptly removed his hawkish central bank governor from office.

At 3:55 AM ET (0755 GMT), the Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, was up 0.1% at 92.047, helped by its safe haven status.

USD/JPY was down 0.2% at 108.70, GBP/USD fell 0.1% to 1.3853, while the risk-sensitive AUD/USD dropped 0.2% to 0.7727. EUR/USD fell 0.1% to 1.1888

The impact of the global semiconductor shortage on the auto industry spread on Saturday, as Stellantis warned its highly profitable pickup trucks were hit, while Ford Motor (NYSE:F) Co said it would cut more U.S. production.

Stellantis, the world's fourth largest automaker, said it will build and hold for final assembly its Ram 1500 Classic trucks at its Warren, Michigan, and Saltillo, Mexico, assembly plants. When chips become available, the vehicles will be completed and shipped to dealers.

The action will last "a number of weeks," a Stellantis spokeswoman said, declining to reveal how many trucks would be affected.

Saudi Arabian state oil giant Aramco said on Sunday it expects to cut capital expenditure after it reported a 44.4% slump in 2020 net profit, hit by lower crude oil prices and sales as the coronavirus pandemic depressed demand.

The company lowered its guidance for spending to around $35 billion from a range of $40 billion to $45 billion previously, according to a disclosure to the Tadawul bourse.

Aramco declared a dividend of $75 billion for 2020 and signalled it was seeing pickup in oil demand.