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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed

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To: maceng2 who wrote (203873)11/11/2002 7:56:07 AM
From: maceng2  Read Replies (2) of 436258
 
Dollar ploughs lows in fallout from Fed cut

By Jennifer Hughes in London
Published: November 11 2002 10:27 | Last Updated: November 11 2002 12:35

news.ft.com

The dollar was under pressure across the board on Monday - less than a week after the US Federal Reserve made a steep rate cut - sparking warnings of possible intervention by Japanese officials.


Heavy dollar selling took the dollar to a three-month low against the euro and the Swiss franc, a 31-month low against sterling and an eight-week low against the Japanese yen.

The euro was at $1.0129 against the dollar from a high on Friday at $1.0146 while sterling was at $1.5901 from $1.592 on Friday, its highest since April 2000. The dollar was at SFr1.444 against the Swiss franc after dipping to SFr1.441 on Friday.

Against the yen, the dollar fell to a fresh eight-week low of about ¥119.2 from ¥119.6 on Friday.

The move back below ¥120 sparked verbal warnings from Japanese officials on Monday. Haruhiko Kuroda, vice-finance minister for international affairs, warned Japan would act to correct "inappropriate" exchange rate moves.

Paul Chertkow at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, said recent conversations with officials at the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Japan led him to believe officials were prepared for intervention to weaken the yen.

"Both...expressed anxiety over the recent depreciation of the dollar against the yen [and] both appear to believe that the move below ¥120 will exacerbate the economic malaise in Japan," he said. "My strong impression was a preparedness for renewed intervention."

The dollar's widespread weakness was backed up by weekly positioning figures released late on Friday by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The data showed the net short dollar position rose to its highest since early July, the last time the dollar fell so heavily.

Net long euro positions hit a five-month high at 31,037 in the week to November 5, larger than the levels seen in late July when the euro reached 30-month highs against the US currency.

Analysts said the surprisingly large swing to short-dollar positions could limit downside for the dollar in the week ahead if investors proved unwilling to extend their current bets on further dollar weakness.

But others warned the dollar's poor reaction to the Federal Reserve's bold half-point cut in interest rates last week and strong productivity numbers would weigh on the currency.

"With the economy still struggling, and the Fed fast running out of meaningful ammunition, the growing feeling is that the US administration would again be quite relaxed with a weaker currency," said Michael Derks, chief global strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
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