Dollar Loses Ground on the Yen
The dollar slipped modestly against the yen, but volatility continued to decline and currency trading was range-bound after U.S. officials offered soothing words on recent turmoil in financial markets.</br></br>Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said that credit-market turbulence over the past few weeks is due to a repricing of risk but said it is no reflection of the underlying health of the U.S. and global economies.</br></br>And Richmond Federal Reserve President Jeffrey Lacker said that despite the recent upheaval, the Fed should remain focused on fundamentals of growth and inflation when it assesses whether to change its main policy tool, the federal-funds rate.</br></br>"We subsequently stabilized in the stock markets and stabilized in the dollar as well," said Andrew Busch, global foreign-exchange strategist at BMO Capital Markets in Chicago. "We're not getting any exaggerated moves that we've been getting in the last couple of weeks."</br></br>Late in New York, the dollar was at 114.42 yen, down from 114.96 yen late Monday. The euro was at $1.3466, down from $1.3485, and at 154.12 yen, down from 155.01 yen. The pound was at $1.9825, down from $1.9882. The dollar was at 1.2067 Swiss francs, up from 1.2054 francs.