Late Tuesday, April 1, 2008, the U.S. Dollar showed slight gains, based partly on the news that Lehman Brothers Holding and UBS Switzerland have issued new shares to support their balance sheets. The offerings by these two investment banks were well received by investors. In addition, the U.S. Dollar was helped by better-than-expected data released by the Institute of Supply Management, which shows that the U.S. manufacturing sector index rose from 48.3 for the month of February to 48.6 for the month of March, which is better than the expected decline to 47.5.
According to traders, the U.S. Dollar is unlikely to vary from its present trading range, pending the release of the March data for non-farm payroll. It is forecasted that jobs in this sector will contract by 50,000, compared to 63,000 in February.
The current liquidity crisis, resulting from the sub-prime lending activities in the U.S., has hit several major European banks. Deutsche Bank, Germany, is expected to mark down approximately 2.5 billion Euros in the first quarter of this year.
On April 2, 2008, at 10:30 a.m. (23:30 GMT) in Sydney, the U.S. Dollar traded at 101.84 yen, compared to 101.92 yen, while the Euro traded at $1.5606, from $1.5605, both in late New York trading.