One has to love headline writers. YahooNews titles an AFP story “Euro drops against dollar after EU rejects bailout.” That got my attention, obviously, so I read further.
The euro fell sharply against the dollar on Monday after European Union leaders ruled out a regional bailout plan for Eastern Europe at a weekend summit, analysts said. The dollar also won support from sliding stock markets and downbeat eurozone manufacturing data ahead of a widely-expected interest rate cut later this week from the European Central Bank (ECB), they added.
In late morning trading in London, the euro fell to 1.2603 dollars from 1.2671 late on Friday.
Against the Japanese currency, the dollar sank to 97.21 yen from 97.65 yen on Friday.
So . . . the dollar went up by a fraction so small as to amount to a rounding error and it’s news? Complete with cause and effect?
Here, according to Exchange-Rate.org, is the fluctation in the exchange rate over the last 30 days:
The last 90 days:
The last year:
So, the rate has been as low as 1.24 in the last four months and as high as 1.60 in the last year. Surely, a fluctuation of seven thousandths of a dollar is nothing to write home about?
James Joyner is managing editor of the Atlantic Council.
Image: europe-money_2.jpg