The dollar firmed up versus other majors Friday morning in New York, paring its massive losses from earlier in the week after a debt debacle at Dubai's state-run bank spooked investors around the globe.
State-run Dubai World, the conglomerate that spearheaded the emirate's breakneck growth, has sought a six-month "standstill" on its $60 billion debts with all lenders.
Global stocks hit the skids while US markets were closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. The safe haven dollar, which was under relentless pressure prior to the Dubai news, has managed to improve from yearly lows versus the euro, but remains close to yesterday's 1995 low against the yen.
The bottom fell out against the dollar against the yen this week. The greenback plunged through long-term support levels to hit a 14-year low of 84.80.
This morning, the dollar steadied to fetch 86.50 yen.
The dollar gained ground on the euro, rising to 1.4850 after hitting a 16-month low of 1.5143 Wednesday evening.
The dollar was trading near 1.6350, having picked up more than 5 cents from a 3-month low set earlier in November.
Commodity prices tailed off as the dollar improved against the euro, giving the buck a boost versus resource-linked currencies. Against the loonie, the dollar jumped to C$1.0750, an advance of about 3 Canadian cents from its mid-week level.
There is no major economic data scheduled for release from the US on Friday. Stock exchanges in New York close early today.
In news from overseas, Eurozone economic sentiment strengthened in November for the eighth month in a row as the economy picks up strongly from recession.
Still, the index remains at a very low level indicating that the healthy growth rates in the second half of this year would not possibly continue into 2010.
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May 15, 2026 15:25 ET Apart from the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, the main news on the economics front this week included key price data from the U.S. and the first quarter economic growth figures from major economies. Both consumer prices and producer costs have started to reflect the effect of supply shocks due to the Middle East conflict. In Europe, GDP data was in focus, while inflation data from China dominated the news flow in Asia.