Dollar’s Rally Stalls For Now

The dollar’s rally paused Thursday for the first time in more than a week, reflecting soft economic news and reluctance to bid the currency higher pending a report today on September U.S. jobs data.

“We’re kind of on the sidelines, just on the off-chance there’s something really unusual about this number,” said John Beerling, chief currency dealer at Norwest Bank Corp. in Minneapolis.

The dollar ended steady to slightly lower against most leading currencies, at least stalling a trend that has pushed the dollar to 2-1/2-year highs against the yen and 3-month highs against the mark over the past few days.

Exchange Currency in Dollars Dollar in foreign currency Canada .7354 1.3598 France .1930 5.1815 Germany .6530 1.5313 Great Britain 1.5650 .6390 Italy .000659 1517.20 Japan .008973 111.45 Mexico .132802 7.5300