Published: Fri, 20 Mar 2009 12:22:09 +0100

USD Retraces Some Losses on Friday

(CEP News) - The U.S. dollar has retraced some of its losses on Friday after the House of Representatives passed legislation to tax away bonuses paid to AIG, along with comments from U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner taking responsibility for the AIG bonuses.

As expected, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a motion to impose a 90% surtax on bonuses paid from firms that received government aid. A similar bill is being discussed in the Senate.

Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Geithner admitted to having known ahead of time about the AIG bonuses, and accepted responsibility, "if any", for bonuses paid.

He also dismissed resignation calls. Meanwhile U.S. President Barack Obama told Jay Leno on the Tonight Show that Geithner is doing an "outstanding job".

EU heads of state are nearing an agreement to double the amount of aid allowed to non-euro zone members and a €5.0 billion stimulus plan for the broader economic union.

The People's Bank of China and Chinese Finance Ministry have also unveiled intentions to deposit 20 billion yuan into China's commercial banks for a period of six months.

Data taken at 7:06 a.m. EDT

Euro/USD down 0.97 cents to 1.3568

USD/CAD up 0.07 cents to 1.2402

USD/Yen up 0.88 points to 95.41

GBP/USD down 0.51 cents to 1.4453

AUD/USD up 0.32 cents to 0.6884

The U.S. Dollar Index is up 0.63 points to 83.76

By Erik Kevin Franco, efranco@economicnews.ca, edited by Stephen Huebl, shuebl@economicnews.ca