Dollar Eases Against Yen and Mark To Open a Potentially Volatile Week
NEW YORK -- The dollar ended global trading yesterday down slightly against the mark and yen as traders avoided taking big dollar positions in a potentially volatile week, broken by a U.S. holiday.</br></br>This week will include the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting today and tomorrow, Russian elections, also tomorrow, and the release on Friday of U.S. jobs data for June. All three events are potential market movers. Thursday is U.S. Independence Day, a national holiday.</br></br>Yesterday, traders bought the British pound, which hit a six-month high against the dollar late in global trading and gained significantly against the mark and yen. Sterling hit an intraday high of $1.5594; the prior time it was higher was Jan. 2, 1996, when it reached an intraday high of $1.5600.</br></br>Traders said sterling rose due to strong economic data released yesterday, making it less likely that the Bank of England will trim base rates tomorrow, and a large late-day sterling purchase.</br></br>"Expectations of a [U.K.] rate cut have been eliminated in the past several days and weeks," said a dealer at a large Swiss bank in New York. "So those who had been selling sterling based on that [expectation of a cut] are having to buy it back."