Foreign Exchange for Monday, Feb. 9, 1987 : Dollar Falls Against Major Currencies

The dollar plunged against most major currencies Monday after Treasury Secretary James Baker dismissed expectations that the big five financial powers would meet soon to try to stabilize foreign exchange markets.

Gold prices were mixed.

At Republic National Bank, gold sold for $403.75 an ounce, unchanged from Friday’s late price.

The dollar’s decline was its biggest one-day plunge against a marketbasket of 10 currencies of major trading partners since the Group of Five meeting in September, 1985, according to an index maintained by the Financial Instruments Exchange, a New York-based market for trading in currency futures.

Market analysts said the dollar’s fall had been all the more dramatic because the currency had been gaining value over the past several days.

“The feeling was that the dollar had reached its base,” said Ronald Holzer, chief dealer at Chicago’s Harris Trust & Savings Bank.