Doing a little currency trading on the side..for those interested will post some about it now and then..late last night misread EURO/USD..early morning USD/JPY was good to me...nice way to end the week..
Here is what some dude thought:
NYC February 22, 2002
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--The dollar took a pounding early Friday in New York as speculative selling, triggered by growing unease over the stability of U.S. asset markets caused players to dump the dollar.
After trading quietly around $0.8700 overnight, the euro bounced more than half-a-cent in a few minutes to intraday highs around $0.8766 before showing signs of steadying as dealers took profits.
Friday's euro buying is seen as essentially speculative, with traders "looking to break the range (for euro/dollar) and see if there is any follow-through," according to Tim O'Sullivan, a trader at GAIN Capital in Warren, N.J.
As the euro shot higher, the yen jumped on the bandwagon, with dollar/yen sliding from its best levels of the day at Y134.50 all the way down to lows at Y133.55.
Growing unease with both the performance of U.S. asset markets and concern over underlying accounting and corporate credibility issues has played a key role in giving speculators confidence to challenge the dollar's fundamental strength, traders said.
News Friday that the New York Federal Reserve is investigating J.P.Morgan Chase's accounting methods in recording its commodity trades with Enron and that hedge funds run by well-known money manager Kenneth Lipper have been forced to sharply write down claimed returns have only added to investors' deepening uncertainty.
"We've heard of different people divesting themselves of U.S. assets," said John Cholakis, a trader at Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank in Jersey City.
Cholakis believes that international investors were particularly spooked by Thursday's erratic U.S. stock markets, which saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average rally strongly in the morning before falling sharply in late trading to close 106 down.
"People are starting to worry about U.S. equity markets," Cholakis said. |
