The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that large U.S. multinationals should soon start showing the positive effects of the dollar's tumble in recent months, reversing the situation in the past few years under a strong greenback. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says the Dollar Index, which measures the buck's strength against six major currencies, is down about 10 per cent for the year, owing to rapidly changing U.S. trade policy and worries about U.S. growth and government debt. About half of that drop happened since April 2, when U.S. President Donald Trump announced outsized import tariffs against trading partners that started a panic about investing in U.S. assets. For the April-June period, the index, which is heavily weighted toward the euro, averaged 99.74, down 6.5 per cent from the first quarter average, the largest such decline over consecutive quarters in more than 30 years. The effects of the dollar's slide are expected to start showing up in second-quarter earnings season just getting under way. UBS's David Lefkowitz estimates the dollar could generate a lift to year-over-year S&P 500 earnings growth by about 1 per cent and 1.5 per cent for the third and fourth quarter, respectively.