The dollar fell to record lows against the euro and the Swiss franc on speculation more banks will report credit-market losses after JPMorgan Chase & Co. and the New York Federal Reserve bailed out Bear Stearns Cos.
The dollar declined to a 12-year low against the yen after the Daily Telegraph said yesterday Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will reveal $3 billion in writedowns when it releases quarterly earnings tomorrow. Traders have increased bets the Fed will slash interest rates one percentage point tomorrow.
``The U.S. dollar will remain under pressure,'' Benedikt Germanier and Alina Anishchanka, strategists at UBS AG, the world's second-biggest foreign-exchange trader, wrote in a March 14 report. ``Easing monetary policy, ongoing uncertainties in the financial sector and rising fears of capital outflows are chief reasons for our short-term bearish outlook.''
The dollar declined $1.5748 per euro, the lowest since the common European currency's debut in 1999, before trading at $1.5727 at 7:44 a.m. in Tokyo from $1.5674 late in New York on March 14. The dollar fell to a record low of 0.9863 Swiss francs. The U.S. currency declined to a 12-year low of 98.11 yen, before trading at 98.34 from 99.09.