NO INTERVENTION, DOLLAR FIXED AT 1.8218 MARKS

  The Bundesbank did not intervene as
  the dollar was fixed lower at 1.8218 marks after 1.8243
  yesterday, dealers said.
      Dealers said dollar trading was very quiet over the
  European morning, with operators made wary by today's meeting
  of the Group of Five finance ministers and central bank chiefs
  ahead of the full IMF/World Bank session in Washington.
      It was undermined by remarks from U.S. Council of Economic
  Advisers Chairman Beryl Sprinkel who told Iowa bankers the U.S.
  Had no objective regarding the value of the dollar.
      Sprinkel also called the reference to stabilizing exchange
  rates at about current levels, made at the Paris meeting on
  February 22, a "vague statement," casting doubt on operators'
  assumptions that a secret target level had been set.
      Sprinkel added that if West Germany and Japan made progress
  to stimulate their economies as the Paris agreement envisaged,
  "there would not be the necessity of significant declines in the
  dollar."
      One dealer for a U.S.-based bank noted the dollar tended
  easier after the remarks. "They were obviously regarded as being
  negative. And if the market starts regarding anything that
  comes out negatively then it means that the underlying
  sentiment is negative," he said.
      Some early selling pressure softened the dollar's
  undertone.
      Most operators overlooked intervention by the Bank of Japan
  to support the dollar against selling in favour of the yen by
  institutional investors and overseas operators, dealers said.
      After the strong focus on the dollar/yen rate in recent
  weeks up to the end of the Japanese financial year on March 31,
  interest and activity was likely to switch, dealers said.
      "We can start to look at a point in time where the interest
  shifts away from dollar/yen and more into dollar/mark and the
  other European currencies," the U.S. Bank dealer said.
      Despite the softer undertone, traders would remain wary of
  taking significant new positions during the Washington
  meetings, dealers said. Aside from the G-5 session today,
  Bundesbank President Karl Otto Poehl is due to meet the German
  Affairs group on international monetary issues later.
      The mark gained some strength from news the Bundesbank set
  a new securities repurchase tender to add money market
  liquidity at a fixed 3.80 pct, unchanged from those over the
  last several weeks. Some expectation had been growing that it
  might cut the rate or move to a minimum interest rate tender,
  signalling a desire for a slight easing in credit policy.
      Bundesbank central bank council member Lothar Mueller said
  the Bundesbank had not given up its focus on money supply. A
  monetary policy which took into account exchange rates and
  capital flows could not be confused with an exchange-rate
  oriented policy, he said, contradicting some growing sentiment.
      Sterling eased a touch to 2.950 marks at the fixing from
  2.957. The yen's unabated strength, despite the intervention,
  brought it up to 1.2555 marks per 100 from yesterday's 1.2480.
      The Swiss franc rose to a fix of 120.515 marks per 100 from
  120.180. The French franc eased to 30.055 marks per 100 after
  30.060, Belgian franc was little changed at 4.829 marks per
  100.
  

