Foreign Exchange for Wednesday, Dec. 11, 1985 : Dollar Stages Late Retreat; Gold Off

The dollar staged a late retreat Wednesday against all major foreign currencies except the British pound, which continued to suffer from falling world oil prices.

The price of gold also fell. Republic National Bank of New York said that as of 4 p.m. EST gold bullion was bid at $317 an ounce, down $1 from Tuesday’s late bid.

The dollar opened U.S. trading slightly above its levels of late Tuesday after rising earlier in Europe because of the weakness of the pound and dollar-buying by multinational corporations in need of dollars for year-end payments.

The pound fell to $1.4112 in late trading in Europe from $1.4355 late Tuesday. Later in New York, sterling closed at $1.41725, down from Tuesday’s $1.4303.

The pound has been undercut by the plunge in oil prices early this week after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said it no longer would cut production to prop up world oil prices.

Oil regained some lost ground on Wednesday.