U.S. Market January 23, 2001

The yen rose against the dollar after a report on Japan's services industry suggested the economy may not be as weak as previously thought, and on speculation the government will try to bolster stock prices. The Dollar tested the 116.20 level in the latter portion of the NY session.

Dollar heavy against euro and yen in U.S. afternoon session, affected by soft leading indicator data, which fell for third consecutive month. Conference Board reporting U.S. leading indicators fell 0.6 percent in December, its third straight monthly decline.

German Economics Minister Werner Mueller said on Monday he expected the country's economic growth to remain firm in the next two years and that it would not fall much below three percent. The official German government forecast is for 2.75 percent growth this year. German industrial production rose 0.5 percent in November, more than the original estimate of an 0.4 percent rise, figures from the Bundesbank show.

The British pound recovered from its five-week low against the dollar, as the currency tracked the euro's losses against the U.S. currency. Sterling slipped to $1.4520, the lowest since Dec. 14, from $1.4684 late Friday prior to the release of the US economic data. Sterling then recovered to 1.4660 during the later portion of the NY session.

The dollar retested its January 17th highs against the Swiss franc in Europe on Monday, edging higher intraday in Europe to break back above 1.65 francs. During the early part of the NY session the dollar/Swiss got as high as 1.6538 as it also strengthened against the euro on news the eagerly-awaited German Ifo index eased to 96.5 in December from 97.0 in November. Dollar Swiss ended the NY session at 1.6310 level.

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