Euro up as WorldCom hits dollar

12 April 2012

THE euro surged against the dollar, topping $0.99 for the first time since February 2000 as the greenback was hit by news of the WorldCom scandal and and doubts over Washington's foreign exchange policy.

Share markets are taking a beating as the WorldCom news - a £2.7bn black hole in its accounts - knocked Asian shares and US stock futures. News of WorldCom's accounting problems came after Wall Street closed sharply lower on Tuesday.

'It's WorldCom, I don't think the stock market needed any more bad news, we'd alredy had Fedex and Quantum reporting very bad earnings,' said Neil Parker, market strategist at Royal Bank of Scotland.

President George Bush said the greenback would seek its level based on market forces and that its level would depend on the economy. The euro had risen as far as $0.9938, up more than 1% on the day. The dollar was also down against the yen near its seven-month low at 120.19 despite repeated yen-selling intervention by Japanese monetary authorities.

Foreign exchange rates

Strike at the heart of the American system

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