By Cornelius Luca
New York, March 30 (BridgeNews) - The greenback showed continued strength at the end of March, forging a 29-month high versus the Japanese yen following comments from a Japanese minister and a record low against the Australian dollar. The European currencies also beat into retreat before trimming losses, with the euro nailed a fresh three-and-a-half-month low of 87.67 cents to the dollar.
* * * Dollar/Swiss franc pulled back from a new four-month high of 1.7380, sterling/dollar slipped as low as a one-week low of 1.4239, while dollar/Canada and euro/yen hit eight-day highs of 1.5750 and 110.80, respectively.
The U.S. traders will take their cues Friday from the University of Michigan consumer confidence survey and on the March Chicago purchasing managers report to see if they match optimism displayed by the U.S. consumer confidence in March. That survey, which was released Tuesday, showed a whopping 117.0 figure, versus expectations of a 105.0 reading. Bank of France governor and ECB council member Jean-Claude Trichet confirmed during the Franco-German Economic Council meeting in Rouen that bank's attitude is "wait and see." He said the ECB must be vigilant on wage inflation, but that the ECB has proved its credibility in cutting rates. Trichet was defending ECB's decision to keep regional interest rates on hold at their Thursday meeting.