Currencies
It wasn't that the euro and yen rose this week, rather it was that the U.S. dollar fell. The dollar posted its worst week against the euro in three months, hurt by the U.S. economy and lowered earnings forecasts. Comments from Greenspan that a U.S. recovery would not come until the end of the year made investors more risk averse and pushed flows away from the dollar.

Traders also cited talk that the G-7 would express concern about the dollar's strength or the euro's weakness - which they didn't. Some market players had speculated that comments from U.S. officials this week represented a softening of Washington's strong dollar policy. U.S. manufacturers have complained to the White House that they are being priced out of export markets by the strong currency. But even with this week's decline, the dollar's value against currencies of the U.S.'s major trading partners remains close to a 15-year high (reached July 5). .

The yen erased earlier losses and rose against the dollar and euro after a Japanese government official said Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told other leaders of the Group of Seven that his economic restructuring proposals would go ahead. Koizumi said at the start of the three day G-7 summit that Japan couldn't wait for a recovery to proceed with his initiatives, which include curbing new bond sales and speeding up the write-off of bad bank debts. The official said other G-7 leaders gave Koizumi their support.

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