Profit-Taking Undercuts Dollar

The dollar fell Tuesday after hitting its second straight 38-month high against the mark, hurt by profit-taking and trader reluctance to hold dollars ahead of U.S.-Japan trade data to be released this week.

But rallies in the U.S. stock and bond markets on surprisingly benign inflation data limited the dollar’s retreat, and traders said the underlying economic forces that have been propelling the U.S. currency were unchanged.

“We ran out of a little bit of steam,” said Ben Strauss, a senior trader at Bank Julius Baer & Co. in New York.

Exchange Currency in Dollars Dollar in foreign currency

Canada .7161 1.3965

France .1722 5.8085

Germany .5790 1.7270

Great Britain 1.6316 .6129

Italy .000588 1699.25

Japan .007931 126.09

Mexico .126775 7.8880