Wednesday, 23 Dec 2009

Dollar Holds to Gains amid Thin Trading

The Dollar maintained its gains versus most major counterparts in today's early trading ahead of several news releases later today that are expected to show a continuation of improvement in the U.S economy. The Dollar is trading at Y91.82 from Y91.80 late Tuesday in New York. The EUR is at $1.4255, compared with $1.4249, and at Y130.86, compared with Y130.85.

The pound fell 0.2% to $1.5931 after the publication of the minutes of the Bank of England's Dec. 10 Monetary Policy Committee meeting, which showed all nine members voted for prolonging the central bank's asset-purchase program. The minutes also suggested that both the inflation and economic outlook were little changed.

Forecasts for U.S New Home Sales to be released at 15:00 GMT are expected to rise to 442K from 430K last month. The latest University of Michigan consumer confidence index due to be released at 14:55 GMT is also expected to show improvement.