Dollar Falls Again Against Yen and Mark
NEW YORK -- The dollar continued its southward path yesterday, dragged down sharply against the mark and the yen by persistent concerns about U.S. and Latin American asset markets and the direction of U.S. interest rates.</br></br>Systemic risk within the U.S. financial sector again weighed on the minds of nervous investors as falling banking stocks led Wall Street into yet another nosedive.</br></br>The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 7632.53, down 210.09 points, while the flight into U.S. government bonds pushed down the yield on the benchmark 30-year Treasury issue to a 4.875%, the lowest level for long-term bonds since June 1967.</br></br>Meanwhile, the Bovespa index fell 9.6% in Brazil, where fears of a devaluation in the local currency, the real, are intensifying ahead of this weekend's presidential election.</br></br>As went U.S. and regional stocks, so went the dollar. It fell to another 19-month low against the mark and gave up about half the gains it posted Wednesday against the yen.