A series of swipes at American companies show how China could take the initiative in a new trade war, using its economic dominance to exact pain.

The U.S. dollar steadied against major peers on Wednesday as investors continued to take stock of President-elect Donald Trump's tariff pledges, while keeping an eye on a key inflation figure out of the U.S. later in the day.

President-elect Trump's plan to increase tariffs on goods from China and impose them on products from Mexico and Canada would drive inflation up by nearly 1%, Goldman Sachs estimates.