Dollar Passes Key Barrier Against Mark
NEW YORK -- The dollar finished New York trading above the key psychological level of 1.8500 marks, despite what traders said were determined efforts by the U.S. Federal Reserve to cap the U.S. currency at that level.</br></br>Buoyed by firmer U.S. interest rates and bullish sentiment ahead of today's release of U.S. trade data for May, the dollar passed 1.8500 marks early in the New York afternoon. Almost immediately, traders said, the Fed began selling dollars to stop the rise. After receding to around 1.8490 marks for about two hours, the dollar surged again in late trading to draw another reported round of intervention.</br></br>Some traders said the Fed's job was made difficult because of orders left on traders' books to buy dollars at 1.8500 marks, or just below. "At this point, they're just selling dollars to fill buy orders," one trader said.</br></br>A spokesman for the Fed would neither confirm nor deny reports that the central bank had intervened.</br></br>Late in the U.S. day, the dollar was quoted at 1.8508 marks, up from 1.8423 marks late Wednesday, and at 133.23 yen, up from 132.70 yen.