First there was this (from Rueters).
European stock markets failed on Monday to build on six-month highs as the euro probed record levels against the dollar, offsetting the positive effects of lower oil prices and a seemingly revitalized U.S. jobs market.
And then there was this (from Bloomberg).
The euro fell from near a record high against the dollar after European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet said the currency's rally was not ``welcome.''
``The recent moves which tend to be brutal on the exchange markets between the euro and U.S. dollar are not welcome from the standpoint of the ECB,'' Trichet told reporters in Basel, Switzerland, after a meeting of central bank governors from the Group of 10 major economies.
So tough talk gets results? Maybe we shouldn't get too carried away.
Trichet's comments today parallel those he made in January, when the euro last headed to a record. He also decried ``brutal'' moves in the foreign-exchange market at that time.
The dollar did appreciate relative to the euro for awhile, but it didn't last.
Nor is it the case that the dollar slide is confined to the euro, as this report from the Atlanta Fed makes clear.
In October the average monthly value for the trade-weighted dollar index of 15 major currencies tracked by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta declined 1.7 percent. The dollar was down on each of the subindexes in October with a 2.4 percent drop on the Americas measure leading the way. The European subindex registered a 1.9 percent decline, while the Pacific and Pacific-excluding-Japan subindexes decreased 0.8 and 0.6 percent, respectively.
As I've earlier noted, this has all the look of a story with legs.