Dollar Finishes Narrowly Mixed; Gold Declines $1
The U.S. dollar was narrowly mixed yesterday as the foreign-exchange market awaited a number of American economic indicators -- including money supply, inflation and retail sales -- that may determine the currency's course in future days.</br></br>Gold declined $1 an ounce in reaction to the still-strong dollar and trader speculation about weakening oil prices.</br></br>Paul Steinborn, an assistant vice president of Credit Suisse, New York, said, "The foreign-exchange market is long (bought) on dollars, and people are nervous about it. There are a lot of players on the sidelines waiting for (today's) economic data."</br></br>The foreign-exchange market, he added, fully expects those figures to present an optimistic view of the U.S. economic recovery, "and the only surprise would be if the economic numbers are on the down side."</br></br>Bruce Pflaum, an assistant vice president and principal dealer of First National Bank of Chicago, agreed that "if (today's economic data) is on the down side, that could pull the dollar down somewhat." He said that New York entered the market yesterday with the dollar strong, "but the dollar failed to set a new high, with the result that the market felt this was a good signal to sell dollars, so the dollar fell back during the course of the day. But it strengthened again in the afternoon in expectation that (today's economic data) will be good."