Dollar Loses Ground against the Mark but Climbs against Japanese Currency
NEW YORK -- A show of strength by the mark against the yen and the pound led the dollar lower against the West German currency.</br></br>By the end of New York trading yesterday, the U.S. currency was slightly higher against the yen and slightly lower against sterling.</br></br>A feature of the trading day was a retreat by the Australian dollar, a move that traders said the Federal Reserve Bank of New York sought to exaggerate by selling the Australian currency.</br></br>Foreign-exchange traders tried to make what profits they could from yesterday's small and often random price movements. "This is a troublesome and difficult market to trade in," said Robert White, manager of corporate foreign-exchange trading for First Interstate Bank of California in Los Angeles.</br></br>"The market just doesn't have the power to break out of its ranges, and for the next couple of days, with no U.S. indicators due out, I think we're just going to continue this messy trading," said Dan Brooks, chief New York dealer for Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank.