News In Brief
| Frankfurt, West Germany
As pound stabilizes, mark hit by trading pressures
West Germany's mark was the new target for pressure from the US dollar on money markets Thursday, after Wednesday's sharp increase in British interest rates halted the slide of the pound.
The dollar traded above 2.85 marks here, edging toward the 10-year high of 2. 86 marks seen earlier in the Far East. Dealers said the dollar could surge again if the Bundesbank failed to raise interest rates.
In London, the British chancellor of the Exchequer, Nigel Lawson, said Thursday that the dollar is ''absurdly overvalued'' against most currencies. Sterling has plunged 13 percent against the dollar since March, repeatedly hitting new lows, and British banks raised their base lending rate on Wednesday by two percentage points, to 12 percent.
