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Dropping Dollar: Falling U.S. Dollar Hurting European Tourism

Aired February 20, 2004 - 06:11   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time for a little "Business Buzz." Are you planning a great European vacation? Well expect to pay more for your Expresso.
Carrie Lee has more live from the Nasdaq market site.

Does this involve a tax in any way?

CARRIE LEE, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Actually, it involves the falling U.S. dollar, Carol. One hundred U.S. dollars today will buy you about 78 euros. The dollar is about 20 cents weaker than it was a year ago. So if you are planning on going to places like Paris or Rome for a summer holiday, you might want to bring some extra cash.

"USA Today" illustrates this. The dollar recently hit a high of $1.29 before retreating a few cents. But two years ago, the euro hit a low of 82 cents to the dollar. So quite less buying power today. Now the dollar has been gaining a little bit of ground in recent days, but really it is still at a record low when you look at it over the past couple of years.

Now this has a lot of implications, first of all, for businesses. Companies that rely on things like tourism and visitors estimate business is down 20 to 30 percent, means people are buying less goods. And part of the concern here is the U.S. trade and budget deficits. That means that for investors, investments overseas are seen as safer in some cases. So that's part of the reason.

As I said, the dollar has been gaining ground in recent days. That's really one of the big reasons futures are pointing to a higher stock open this morning. So we'll see what happens at 9:30, Carol.

Hewlett-Packard a stock to watch. They saw nice sales, in part, because of the falling dollar. That can help companies, U.S. companies that do business overseas.

Back to you.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Carrie Lee live from the Nasdaq market site.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Tourism>


Aired February 20, 2004 - 06:11   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time for a little "Business Buzz." Are you planning a great European vacation? Well expect to pay more for your Expresso.
Carrie Lee has more live from the Nasdaq market site.

Does this involve a tax in any way?

CARRIE LEE, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Actually, it involves the falling U.S. dollar, Carol. One hundred U.S. dollars today will buy you about 78 euros. The dollar is about 20 cents weaker than it was a year ago. So if you are planning on going to places like Paris or Rome for a summer holiday, you might want to bring some extra cash.

"USA Today" illustrates this. The dollar recently hit a high of $1.29 before retreating a few cents. But two years ago, the euro hit a low of 82 cents to the dollar. So quite less buying power today. Now the dollar has been gaining a little bit of ground in recent days, but really it is still at a record low when you look at it over the past couple of years.

Now this has a lot of implications, first of all, for businesses. Companies that rely on things like tourism and visitors estimate business is down 20 to 30 percent, means people are buying less goods. And part of the concern here is the U.S. trade and budget deficits. That means that for investors, investments overseas are seen as safer in some cases. So that's part of the reason.

As I said, the dollar has been gaining ground in recent days. That's really one of the big reasons futures are pointing to a higher stock open this morning. So we'll see what happens at 9:30, Carol.

Hewlett-Packard a stock to watch. They saw nice sales, in part, because of the falling dollar. That can help companies, U.S. companies that do business overseas.

Back to you.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Carrie Lee live from the Nasdaq market site.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Tourism>