April 23 â Bloomberg: âThe U.S. is trying to push the dollar lower against the euro to narrow its trade deficit and retaliate against Germany and France for their opposition to the Iraq war, German magazine Der Spiegel said. âThis will be Europe's invisible contribution to our Iraq costs,â an unidentified U.S. official told European policy makers in Brussels, according to the magazine. The U.S. has given up its strong dollar policy, the official said.â Interestingly, dollar weakness seems to broaden by the week. The euro again traded above 110, with the dollar nearing a record low against the European currency. Year-to-date, we see that the Brazil real has gained 19% against the dollar, the Argentine peso 18%, South African rand 18%, Australian dollar 10%, and Canadian dollar 8%. This week, British pound trades to a five-week high against the dollar; the Swedish krona trades to a three-year high; the South African rand to a 2 ½ year high; the Israeli shekel to a 15-month high. Mexican peso trades to the highest level against the dollar since early January and the Brazilian real to the highest level since August. (Argentine stocks traded to five-year highs this week.)
yabz 'challenge your point of view regarding currency aesthetics ... the funny thing with government claims on currencies is that they all assume they can influence the market substantially until they have to ... nevertheless I think european economy can hardly stand a euro above 120. don't forget that the impact on the economy has a time lag of several months and europe is already bleeding ... peace