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Market Review -    03/10/2008 22:16 GMT

Dollar posts its best weekly gain versus the euro


The U.S. dollar rose against the euro on Friday as the approval of a $700 billion rescue package by Congress for the U.S. financial sector left investors fretting that Europe might not have adequate measures to deal with the credit crisis.   
  
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 263-171 to pass the bailout plan after the U.S. Senate approved it on Thursday night and President George W Bush promptly signed it. The measure will allow the U.S. Treasury to buy illiquid mortgage assets from banks and hopefully allow credit to flow again.   
  
Earlier in the day, the dollar was under pressure and fell to a session low of 104.48 yen versus the Japanese as data showing that U.S. employers cut payrolls at the steepest rate in 5-1/2 years last month with an unexpectedly large 159,000 drop in non-farm jobs as employment contracted for a ninth straight month, however, investors largely shrugged off the report ahead of the $700 billion rescue package approval and buy another round of dollar, it touched a session high of 106.15 yen before retreating on profit taking as soon as the House passed the bill. The pair ended down 0.1 percent at 105.31 yen.  
  
The dollar retained the bulk of gains this week and was on track for its best weekly rise versus major currencies since October 1992. The ICE Futures U.S. dollar index, which tracks the dollar's value against a basket of six currencies, rose to a 13-month peak of 80.933 in earlier session but ended flat at 80.597, up 0.13 percent.  
  
The euro recorded its worst weekly percentage loss since its introduction in 1999, posting a 5.6 percent decline versus the dollar. The single currency was down 0.3 percent at 1.3772 after plumbing to a 13-month trough of around 1.3702. Against the yen, the euro was down 0.3 percent at 145.05 yen but well above a more than two-year trough of 143.98 yen touched earlier in the session.   
  
Stocks on Wall Street ended its worst week in seven years with another tumble on Friday as investors worried that the rescue package might not prevent a recession in the United States. By the end of the day, the Dow Jones industrial average index was down 157 points or 1.50 percent, at 10,325 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 1.35 percent to 1,099 and the Nasdaq Composite index fell 1.48 percent to 1,497.  
  
Over the weekend, French President Nicholas Sarkozy is due to meet the leaders of Germany, Italy and Britain, as well as senior EU officials and European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet on Saturday to try to find a common European approach to the international banking crisis.   
  
Next Monday, economic data releases include U.K. Industrial production and Manufacturing production, and Canada Building permits and Ivey Purchasing Manager Index.
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