U.S. Market December 28, 2000,

Euro consolidation and yen weakness, one securing a trend and the other continuing one, were the story in pre-holiday trading in New York today. The eur/usd slipped a bit from Wednesday’s five month high of 0.9340 to close at 0.9290, down 0.1% on the day. However, many traders expect a further push higher as the new year commences. Traditionally January is a busy month in the FX markets. With the Japanese Finance Ministry foreign exchange official Kuroda stating in Tokyo overnight that recent yen weakness was not wrong, the usd/yen had no place to go but up. The currency pair reached 114.90 in New York before concluding the day at 114.40 up about 0.1% on the previous day’s close. Economic indicators released over the past few weeks seem to point to a looming recession and the Japanese government’s options are limited; in addition, many observers doubt the necessary political will in Tokyo for serious corrective measures.

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