NEW YORK — The dollar rose Wednesday against the Japanese yen and the euro, driven up sharply amid concerns about possible intervention by Japanese financial authorities after the government released weak economic growth data.
In midday trading in New York, the dollar was quoted at 104.70 yen, up from 102.84 late Tuesday.
The Japanese government announced that its economy grew 0.2 percent on an annual basis in the July-September period from the previous quarter, down from the preliminary figure of 0.3 percent, reinforcing recent signs that Japan's recovery may be stalling.
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Traders are squaring up on short dollar positions as they weigh the possibility of a coordinated intervention by Japanese and European officials, said Michael Woolfolk, senior currency strategist at Bank of New York. A short dollar position represents a bet the currency will fall.
http://ap.lubbockonline.com/pstories/business/20041208/2640984.shtmlIs this just basically saying our economy may suck, but it sucks less than Japan's economy? Of course, a lot of Japan's economy is tied to ours...