Wall Street, New York – The dollar lost ground against the Euro and Yen again yesterday after the market perceived a price rebound at the producer level an new unfavorable signs in the US housing and industrial sectors of the economy.
After the closing of the stock market, the Euro was at $1.5515 compared to 1.5478 from Monday’s session. In order to acquire a dollar, you needed .6445 Euros against the .6461 from the previous day.
With respect to the Yen, the dollar closed at 107.97 against the 107.97 from the previous day’s closing. The US currency weakened for the second consecutive day after some disappointing signs in the economy lowered expectations that interest rates would be maintained or raised in the short term from the current 2%.
In other news, US based airlines reported that they could lose 10 billion dollars in 2008 due to the high price of jet fuel, a sum which could equal or surpass the worst loss in the airline industry’s history which occurred in 2002. In a Senate hearing regarding speculative operations in the oil market, James May, from the Airline Transport Association stated that up to 200 communities could lose airline services due to cutbacks in the airlines’ capacity to save money. Analysts on Wall Street are also predicting multi-million dollars losses for the largest airlines, which are spending 50% more on jet fuel than a year ago. It is expected that the total spent by the airlines on jet fuel will surpass 61 billion dollars, the largest expenditure for the airlines.
How does this affect TicosLand and Costa Rica? Costa Rica is largely dependent on the tourism industry. A cutback on flights to Costa Rica would mean less tourists and less earnings from the tourism industry. It is a domino effect which could be felt even by small farmers who produce for the farmer’s market and don’t even know that their fortunes are tied to the tourism industry.
Stay informed and read the Ticosland Blog. While you are at it, visit our directory and fill out a profile. It could mean more traffic for your website and higher sales. It could be a way to avoid the collateral effect that is being posed by the downturn in the US economy.
Tags: dollar, euro, industry, ticosland.com costa rica, yen
