RTTN: Dollar Stays Near Monthly Highs Versus Euro, Yen
(RTTNews) - The dollar held its ground Wednesday morning in New York, hovering near multi-week highs against the euro and yen amid deepening concerns about European sovereign debt problems.
The safe haven buck has rebounded versus most majors, paring losses from a brutal build-up to November's quantitative easing announcement.
For now, the focus of the markets has shifted to Europe, where Ireland is being pressured to accept aid that may prevent bond market vigilantes from going after similarly debt-ridden Greece and Portugal.
Ireland is hoping to avoid the political embarrassment of taking money from its neighbors and the IMF, but all indications are that EU officials will secure at least a firewall around Irish banks to prevent contagion.
U.K.'s Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne on Wednesday offered Britain's support to Ireland to stabilize Dublin's banking system.
"It's in Britain's national interest that the Irish economy is successful and we have a stable banking system," Osborne said in Brussels as he arrived to join a meeting of European finance ministers.
The dollar held near yesterday's 7-week high of $1.3446 versus the euro, having moved well away from a 10-month low near 1.43 set earlier this month.
The dollar was also steady against the sterling, little changed from a 2-week high near $1.5837.
The nine-member policy board of the Bank of England split three ways for a second month in November to maintain the key interest rate and the size of quantitative easing, the minutes of the meeting showed Wednesday.
The dollar struggle to extend its comeback versus the yen, holding near yesterday's 6-week high of Y83.58. About two weeks ago, the dollar hit a 15-year low of Y80.22.
Looking at today's economic calendar in the US, the Commerce Department is set to release its housing starts report for October at 8:30 am ET. Economists expect a decline in starts to 600,000.
At the same time, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its consumer price inflation report for October. The consensus estimates call for a 0.3% increase in the headline consumer price index and a 0.1% increase in the core consumer price index.
