spaces not recognized as spaces

I'm seeking to analyze data copied from stock broker on-line statement.
The values copy across as text with (what appears to be) a space
before and after each number. I can manually delete the spaces by
pressing F2 and the delete or backspace key as appropriate for the space
at the front and rear of the number which is otherwise of the form
-$123,456.00

The function Value() does not retrieve the value from the text stream.

The function Trim() does not remove the spaces.

The menu function, "replace" does not find the spaces when you use the
space bar to enter the item to be searched for.

Is there a special character that appears as a space but is not a space?

The spaces should be spaces and be recognised as such. However you might find that the problem is what Excel is using to understand where one number starts and another ends. In most import formats, this is handled by a tab character (small right pointing arrow only visible in MS Word when you enable the Printers symbol).
Q: Is the stockbroker's detail imported as an ASCII file or are you trying to copy a spreadsheet directly into Excel? I would suggest you try an interim step (I have a similar problem and still haven't found the seamless answer yet): Copy the Stockbrocker statement and paste it into WORD first. Your should end up with something like this:
-$154,000.45> >$145.541>$15,098.98> etc (the > is actually a right facing arrow which I can't reproduce here). Note that the second column contains a blank space which Wrod understands as a space or null.
If you then copy with from Word into Excel, I think you will end up with numbers and blanks in the right places...

Cheers
Jon