By Kyle Peterson, BridgeNews Chicago--March 2
The U.S. dollar softened versus most major currencies overnight, but it rocketed to a six-week high of 119.00 yen as the outlook for the Japanese economy turns increasingly sour. The euro hit a 24-day high of 93.82 cents on the euro zone's resilience in the face of a global economic slowdown.
* * * Dollar/yen rallied mainly because of a 419-point drop in the Nikkei to a fresh 15 1/2-year low, but crummy Japanese economic data helped as well. Dollar/Swiss franc sank to a 24-day low of 1.6398, while sterling/dollar mirrored, climbing to a 24-day high of 1.4745.
Dollar/Canada was lower on profit-taking after notching a 12 1/2-week high on Thursday. Overnight, the pair remained in the previous range of 1.5356 to 1.5491.
The U.S. economic agenda is light. But traders can hear Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan testify on budget issues to the House Budget Committee at 1000 ET. Also at 1000 ET, the University of Michigan consumer confidence survey for February will be released. This data might be especially meaningful to traders who have hung their hopes for another interest rate cut on consumer confidence readings.
The U.S. traders are likely to sell the dollar lower versus the euro and most other major currencies. But dollar/yen may test the upside.