6 January 2004, 09:17  Dollar crawls off lows in late trade

The dollar was off day lows against the euro in late trade, but only just, as sentiment surrounding the US currency remained depressed. The euro retreated from its race to the USD1.27 mark figure to settle at USD1.2682 by 1715 while sterling found a comfortable perch above USD1.80 and continued climbing to yet new 11 year highs. Minor profit taking and hedge fund selling were behind the dollar's reprieve but analysts said there was no denying that dollar sentiment remained negative.
Concerns over the ability of the US to attract enough capital to finance its current account deficit and the likelihood that US interest rates will stay low for some time continued to weigh on the dollar. Beyond that, fears over fresh terrorist attacks and the US's first case of mad cow also played a part in depressing the US currency. Overnight, Federal Reserve Board member Ben Bernanke signalled a dollar sell green light when he pointed out that the dollar was above the average value of the 1990s in trade weighted terms, analysts said. //www.fxcentre.com

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