Daily currency report

Downward pressures eased for the US dollar as the Treasury's Paulson pushed to increase the Federal Reserve's regulatory control over the financial markets - strengthening the weakened dollar against most of the major currencies. The commodity currencies fell against the dollar as oil and gold prices dropped, while the Swiss Franc was the only one to prevail against the greenback as investors curbed their risk.

GBP

Although dollar strength could be partially blamed for the sterling's latest string of weakness, the main reason for the market's bearishness for the sterling is their concern that the UK could be in just as much trouble as the US. The only difference is the outlook for monetary policy.

USD

The dollar rose versus the Swiss franc, the euro and the sterling after European bank UBS announced an additional $19 billion of write-offs, highlighting that credit market woes are not just a US problem. Keeping the spotlight on Europe's financial sector, Deutsche Bank said it expects to write down a larger than forecast $4 billion on the value of loans and assets in the first quarter.

EUR

The euro came close to a record high against the dollar as higher than forecast eurozone price data reinforced expectations that the inflation-focused European Central Bank will not start cutting rates soon.

JPY

The yen weakened across the board despite an improvement in industrial production and labour cash earnings. This has been on the rise for the past two months which is very encouraging, because weak wage growth has been the main reason why Japanese consumer spending has been depressed.