LONDON, 12 February 2004 — The dollar faltered in late trade after Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan reiterated that the rate-setting body will be patient before hiking US interest rates, dealers said. The single European currency stood at 1.2831 dollars against 1.2671 late on Tuesday in New York.
The dollar was being traded at 105.26 yen from 105.56 on Tuesday. Activity was subdued in Asian trading with Japanese markets closed for a public holiday.
On the London Bullion Market, the price of an ounce of gold stood at $405.75 against $408.55 late on Tuesday.
European stocks closed at their highest levels in 17 months after Greenspan signaled the US economy would grow strongly.
The FTSE 100 closed at 4,396 points, down 8.9 or 0.20 percent. The DAX index ended at 4,122.16 points, up 11.36 or 0.28 percent. The CAC-40 index closed at 3,677.85 points, up 9.4 or 0.26 percent. The Swiss market index closed at 5,882.1 points, up 2.1 or 0.04 percent. The All Share Mibtel index closed at 20,682 points, up 5 or 0.02 percent.
In New York, US stocks rebounded from a sluggish start yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 top stocks reversed early losses and moved up 72.59 points, or 0.68 percent, to 10,686.44 while the NASDAQ composite added 8.88 points, or 0.43 percent, to 2,084.21 at 1700 GMT. The broad-market Standard and Poor’s 500 index climbed 7.86 points or 0.69 percent to 1,153.40.
The Hang Seng Index (HSI) was up 9.10 points or 0.07 percent at 13,524.76. In Sydney, the All Ordinaries index was up 14.1 points at 3,315.3. In Singapore, the Straits Times Index closed down 4.17 points at 1,868.5.
