TOKYO (MarketWatch) -- The dollar was higher against manby rivals in Asian trading Thursday, although it gave back most of its gains against the yen, inspired by reported comments by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
Geithner told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published on its Web site Thursday that major currencies are “roughly in alignment now,” a suggestion that he sees no need for the dollar to sink more than it already has against the euro and yen. See full story on Geithner comments on currencies.
But the dollar subsequently “reversed lower on the realization that Geithner did not specifically mention” the euro or the yen, said Sue Trinh, senior currency strategist at Royal Bank of Canada in Hong Kong, in a note to clients.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar (USDYEN 80.9800, -0.1300, -0.1602%) was buying ¥81.13, compared with ¥81.08 in late Wednesday’s trading. Earlier, the pair rose as high as with ¥81.82 in a market on edge due to fears that Japanese authorities could intervene again to curb the yen’s strength. See real-time currency rates and tools.
The dollar index (DXY 77.19, +0.02, +0.02%) , a measure of the U.S. unit against a basket of major global currencies, rose to 77.331, from 77.147 late Wednesday.
Also contributing to the dollar’s seesaw movements was a correction by The China Foreign Exchange System, to the parity rate against which the yuan is allowed to trade against other currencies.
The yuan’s official rate was set at 6.6695 yuan to the dollar, compared with Wednesday’s parity rate of 6.6754 yuan. Earlier, the official rate was erroneously published as 6.6495 yuan, which would have been a record high for the Chinese unit against the dollar.
The dollar “received an extra boost from the announcement that the [dollar/yuan] central parity was corrected to 6.6695,” RBC’s Trinh said.
The People’s Bank of China has set the parity rate at record highs against the dollar in 14 of the past 23 trading days, according to reports.
The euro (EURUSD 1.3959, 0.0000, 0.0000%) fell to $1.3918 from $1.3955 late Wednesday and the British pound slipped to $1.5807 from $1.5837.
