U.S. Market December 14, 2000, (15.12.2000)

The euro and its attendant European ministers and politicians refrained from ‘I told you so’ today as the united currency continued to capitalize on American equity worries and the dollar letdown following the concluded Presidential elections. Wim Duisenberg President of the European Central Bank said modestly “It seems to have turned the corner” as the euro sprang above 0.8900 and stopped a bit short of 100 yen in afternoon New York trading. The euro has returned to favor against both the greenback and the yen as the immediate growth potential of both the Japanese and American economies, especially as mirrored in their major stock averages, has become doubtful. It has now been seven weeks since the euro hit its all time low of 0.8225. This is not an inordinate time span for the reversal of a trend going back more than a year to become apparent. A profit and revenue warning from Microsoft late in the day further weakened the near term prospects for the dollar.