Log In | Register
NEW YORK — The dollar continued its slide to fresh annual lows against the euro Thursday as investors felt confident to leave the safety of the American currency.
The 16-nation euro rose as high as $1.4613 in early trading, its highest level this year, and bought $1.4585 in the late afternoon compared with $1.4542 it bought Wednesday. The British pound jumped to $1.6665 from $1.6530, while the dollar slid to 91.74 Japanese yen from 92.13 yen, earlier hitting a seven-month low of 91.39 yen.
The dollar index fell as low as 76.7 against a basket of six major world currencies that includes the euro, yen, Canadian dollar, British pound, Swedish krona and Swiss franc. That's its lowest level since last September.
Investors have been favoring foreign currencies, and stock markets have been rising steadily since the G-20 finance officials pledged last weekend to maintain government spending, low interest rates and expansion of the money supply in order to buck up the global economy.
Those moves could help boost economic activity and liquidity in financial markets, increasing investors' appetite for assets around the world at the expense of the dollar, which is widely considered a safe haven.
A drop in weekly unemployment claims and an upbeat forecast from Procter & Gamble Thursday also encouraged investors to leave the safe haven of the U.S. currency.
The Labor Department's report that jobless claims fell more than expected to 550,000 last week provided a new dose of optimism about the economy and helped the market advance for a fifth straight day, the longest winning streak since November.
P&G's prediction that sales will rebound this fall also boosted the mood on Wall Street. The maker of Tide soap and Gillette razors is the biggest gainer among the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones industrial average.
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said confidence and stability were returning after the panic that began a year ago.
In other late trading, the dollar slid to 1.0790 Canadian dollars from 1.0812 late Wednesday, and fell to 1.0387 Swiss francs from 1.0421 francs.
