Dollar Is Little Changed Against Yen and Marketta
May 11, 2011
NEW YORK -- The dollar ended global trading little changed against the mark and the yen Thursday despite an unexpected upward revision of U.S. economic growth for the second quarter. Late in New York, the dollar was quoted at 1.4773 marks, slightly up from 1.4769 marks late Wednesday in New York. The U.S. currency also was quoted at 108.42 yen, down from 108.47 yen. Sterling was trading at $1.5579, down from $1.5595. Traders said the U.S. currency began rising early in the European session as profit-takers sold marks for yen and European currencies, especially the Italian lira. The U.S. data encouraged more dollar-buying, but when that wasn't enough to push the U.S. currency above the key resistance point of 1.4815 marks, it began sliding. ``We're just seeing some people squaring up with the (Labor Day) weekend coming up,'' said Jayme Palm, senior foreign exchange trader at Banco Di Sicilia in New York. ``People were just lightening up on their long mark positions.'' Meanwhile, Japanese-exporter selling capped the dollar at the 108.50-yen level, killing the upward momentum that followed Japan's release of a weaker-than-expected tankan business sentiment survey Wednesday. Earlier Thursday, the U.S. revised up its second quarter GDP growth figure to a 4.8% annual rate from the 4.2% previously reported. Most economists had expected a downward revision to a 4.1% rate.
