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

To: JakeStraw who wrote (495342)	11/19/2003 8:36:07 AM
From: MKTBUZZ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

No, he/she is a Democrat. Some of them really are that bad. Their ranks are filled with people like that.

To: JakeStraw who wrote (495342)	11/19/2003 8:50:54 AM
From: Kenneth E. Phillipps	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Dollar hits record low versus euro U.S. quota measures on Chinese textile imports push greenback to three-year low versus yen. November 19, 2003: 7:33 AM EST LONDON (Reuters) - The dollar sank to record lows against the euro and three-year lows against the yen Wednesday after the U.S. said it would put quotas on Chinese textile imports, but the greenback later rebounded on the yen due to suspected Japanese intervention. The euro bought $1.1977 early Wednesday, although traders said a low of $1.1978 had been seen on some trading systems. The dollar recovered to $1.1930 per euro, compared with $1.1954 late Tuesday. The dollar shed about 1.7 percent per euro Tuesday and analysts said the next target was $1.20 in the near term. The dollar was trading at ¥108.86, slightly below the day's highs but above the previous three-year lows of ¥107.58. The dollar bought ¥108.06 late Tuesday. The dollar gained 1-1/2 yen from its lows as traders suspected Japanese authorities were acting to curb yen strength. Officials in Tokyo were not immediately available for comment. The Chinese quotas encouraged speculation that the U.S. administration was prepared to protect its domestic industries at all costs. Markets worried that a weaker dollar would be one means of achieving the jobs growth Washington is seeking before next year's presidential election. Tuesday's news of the import restrictions was compounded by data showing net foreign purchases of both U.S. stocks and Treasury bonds fell in September. This stoked concerns the U.S. may not be attracting enough foreign capital to fund its current account gap. "The mix of portfolio flow data from the U.S. along with the announcement of trade quotas on China have brought the funding issue back into the fore," said Derek Halpenny, currency economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. "The Japanese authorities seem to have shifted tactics from covertly supporting to actual intervention to try to drive dollar/yen higher. It seems a logical conclusion to make that the Japanese have been given the wink from Washington to be more aggressive to bring some order back into the market." Traders said it appeared that Japanese authorities sold yen for dollars in two quick rounds of intervention after the dollar broke below key support at ¥107.86. Analysts said the U.S. restrictions on Chinese-made bras and other garments were more a concern for the rising protectionism they symbolized than the direct economic impact, which some said was relatively small change at this stage. "The message keeps re-emerging that basically the U.S. wants to protect domestic jobs at this point in time, and it will do whatever it takes to do that -- and a weaker dollar falls into that picture," said Shahab Jalinoos, senior currency strategist at ABN Amro. "The only thing that can fix this is if you start to see amazing data on the jobs front -- data that is so good that people come to the view that actually (President) Bush does not need to mess around on the trade side any more in the sense that he's beaten the jobs issue." Worries that the United States may not be attracting foreign capital were exacerbated by data showing foreigners' net purchases of U.S. bonds fell to $5.6 billion in September from $25.2 billion in August. Further exacerbating deteriorating dollar sentiment was news that U.S. federal law enforcement officials in New York had arrested about 48 people in connection with a foreign-currency trading probe. Bush is visiting Britain on Wednesday and St. Louis Federal Reserve President William Poole speaks later on international trade. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------