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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JEB who wrote (404022)	5/8/2003 1:39:21 AM
From: CYBERKEN	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

If the people of West Virginia don't see yet what a senile old fart Robert Byrd is, they just aren't paying any attention. He used to be just another aggressive anti-American left wing Senate blowhard (ala Tom Harkin). But he has sunk to the levels he displayed in mumbling some written-for-him speech attacking a president for congratulating troops as they return home from a victory. I doubt he even comprehended the words he was stumbling over on that paper. There are SO many poster boys for term limits in the Senate (in both parties) you can't keep count...

To: JEB who wrote (404022)	5/8/2003 7:07:54 AM
From: sylvester80	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Dollar slide heightens alert for yen intervention Wednesday May 7, 2:51 pm ET By John Parry biz.yahoo.com NEW YORK, May 7 (Reuters) - The dollar's slide has traders on alert for possible yen-weakening market intervention as the Japanese currency's strength threatens to choke Japan's fragile economy, analysts said on Wednesday. The greenback's relapse to 10-month lows against the yen, around 116.10 yen on Wednesday, came after the dollar hit four-year lows against the euro on Tuesday, with investors seeking higher-yielding debt and currencies outside the United States. No strategists reported seeing any market intervention on Wednesday. But trading was jittery and at times rumor-driven as the dollar slipped below a key area between 116.40 and 116.30 yen, where analysts said the Bank of Japan would become more likely to act and buy dollars on behalf of Japan's Ministry of Finance. "They could intervene at any time with respect to the dollar. Below 118 yen we are in an amber zone. We would approach a red zone around 116 yen," said Michael Woolfolk, currency strategist with the Bank of New York. The dollar's session lows not far above the 116.0 mark have taken it within sight of an oft-cited "line in the sand" where many traders expect Japan would be forced to step in. "A break of 115.0 yen would be very ominous," said Marc Chandler, chief currency strategist with HSBC in New York. JAPANESE EXPORTERS HURTING As Japan's economy struggles to attain even lackluster growth, the yen's seemingly gravity-defying ascent against the dollar has pinched Japanese exporters, whose competitiveness abroad is essential to keep the economy expanding. Yet investors' focus on Japan's current account surplus, contrasted with the U.S. current account deficit, is boosting the yen against the dollar, overriding economic growth differentials. The yen's unbridled strength dismays Japanese businesses and politicians. To the surprise of some U.S.-based analysts, although Japanese policy-makers are thought to be mulling a return to the market interventions they orchestrated in the first quarter, the most recent protests about the yen's rise have been remarkably muted. "The selling of the dollar against the yen we have seen in recent days (is partly because) there have been very few comments from Japanese policy-makers, and that has encouraged shorter-term investors to get involved in the trade. We do think intervention risks are significant given the pace of the dollar's fall against the yen," said Rebecca Patterson, global currency strategist at JP Morgan in New York. However, because Japan's stock markets are not currently under extreme pressure, that may stay the MOF's hand from intervening for now, Patterson said. Japan's benchmark Nikkei average (^N225 - News) finished up 0.32 percent at 8,109.77 on Wednesday, for its first five-day winning streak since late November. Japan's top financial diplomat, Zembei Mizoguchi, said on Wednesday that current moves in the foreign exchange market were short-term and that authorities would take action if necessary. Some traders read his remarks as a measured MOF textbook-style response to yen strength, but not one that indicated imminent action. ACTION MAY SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS Yet action may soon speak louder than words if the pace of the yen's ascent accelerates and the BOJ steps in. In the first quarter, the BOJ took a new tack and orchestrated interventions by stealth. It only revealed the size of its operations at the end of each month, long after the fact. Statistics for April indicate the BOJ did not intervene last month. But traders are now primed for that possibility. The pressure of dollar weakness across the board is so great that the BOJ would be unlikely to try to turn back the tide at current levels, unless thin market conditions afforded a window of opportunity to send the dollar spiking higher, said Paresh Upadhyaya, currency analyst at Putnam Investments in Boston. He said the most likely timing for intervention would be toward the end of the U.S. trading session, before Asian markets gain their early morning momentum, and again when Tokyo volume drops before traders hit their desks in London in the European morning.