Official Jawboning, Central Bank Moves Pull Dollar Down From Intraday Peaks
NEW YORK -- A combination of official jawboning and intervention by four central banks caused the dollar to finish mixed after slipping from intraday peaks.</br></br>Defying the commonly accepted wisdom that the death of Emperor Hirohito would send the yen lower, the Japanese currency strengthened against both the dollar and the mark. Several dealers noted, though, that yen trading was much thinner than usual, with many Japanese investors apparently absent from the market.</br></br>Bundesbank President Karl Otto Poehl moved both to dispel confusion in the market created by statements of a deputy last week and to counter suggestions that West Germany and the U.S. don't see eye to eye on the dollar.</br></br>Speaking in Basel, Switzerland, after the monthly meeting of the Bank for International Settlements -- a sort of central bank for central bankers -- Mr. Poehl insisted that the German central bank's policy remains one of maintaining a strong mark.</br></br>Mr. Poehl's comments, which followed open-market sales of dollars for marks by the Bundesbank, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Bank of Canada, appeared to reinforce the actions of the central banks and helped drive the dollar sharply lower. The Swiss National Bank also confirmed that it sold dollars for Swiss francs.