Rescue plans drive currency markets

Currency moves Friday were driven by plans and anticipation of more plans by the US to rush legislation through Congress that is designed to shore up confidence in the financial markets and by a pledge from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to work through the weekend to firm up plans meant to return confidence in the markets.

Among other plans was one to use money out of the Depression-era created Exchange Stabilization Fund to insure money-market holdings against a market collapse.

The US dollar advanced on a generally weaker yen but the declined against many other currencies, especially from emerging markets.

In late morning trade in New York, it took ¥106.845 to buy a dollar while the dollar had dropped to $1,4436 to the euro.

The Korean won traded at W1.139 to the dollar, the Indian rupee stood at Rs45.445 to the greenback and the Mexican peso traded at Mex$10.601 to the US currency while the Brazilian real traded at R$1.8930 to the dollar and the South African rand was at $7.9425 to the greenback.

The euro gained on the yen, to ¥154.2467 while the Australian dollar was worth ¥88.5211 and the New Zealand dollar cost ¥73.445.

The Swiss franc was also hurt by a return to interest in higher-yielding currencies, trading at SFr1.1058 to the US dollar and at SFr1.5965 to the euro in late morning trade in New York.

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