NEW YORK: The dollar rose against the euro and the Japanese yen but dropped versus the pound in light trading on New Year's Eve Wednesday.
The 15-nation euro bought $1.3954 in late New York trading, below the $1.4087 it bought late Tuesday. The dollar edged up to 90.90 yen from 90.29 yen, while the British pound advanced to $1.4556 from $1.4412.
The pound has been battered by abysmal economic news in Britain and now finds itself near parity with the euro, meaning Britons traveling in the euro zone are getting less value for their traditionally strong currency.
The euro was adopted as virtual currency in 1999 and its coins and bank notes went into circulation in January 2002. On Jan. 1, Slovakia will adopt the currency, the 16th such country to do so.
US stocks got a small boost Wednesday by a government report that initial applications for unemployment benefits fell by 94,000 to 492,000 for the week ended December 27.
The drop, which partly reflects seasonal adjustment difficulties tied to the Christmas holiday, was greater than analysts had expected. But the number of people still claiming benefits has climbed to the highest level since 1982.
Meanwhile, investors have applauded the government's decision to extend $5 billion to General Motors Corp's troubled financing arm, GMAC Financial Services LLC. Light volume ahead of holidays such as New Year's Day on Thursday can skew markets.
Bob Sinche, head of global foreign exchange strategy at Bank of America Corp in New York, said risk appetite in currency trading has recently improved. ``We've seen a lot of side trading today, and the Australian dollar has shown some signs of gains as equities have improved,'' Sinche said. ``There is some hope at least that risk appetite might be on the mend in 2009.''
The Australian dollar rose to 70.92 US cents from 69.10 US cents it bought late Tuesday. While the Australian dollar surged in late 2007 and earlier this year on the back of rising commodity prices and an attractively high interest rate, it has collapsed to multiyear lows as the economy faltered with the slump in commodity prices and foreign investors pulled in their money from abroad.
In other late trading, the dollar edged up to 1.0721 Swiss francs from 1.0577 francs it bought late Tuesday, but fell to 1.2142 Canadian dollars from 1.2256.
