The dollar traded at almost the lowest since February as a partial shutdown of the U.S. government boosted speculation the Federal Reserve will persevere with asset purchases that tend to weaken the currency.
The euro touched its highest level against the greenback in almost eight months as political wrangling threatened to curb U.S. growth. Lawmakers still need to agree on raising the U.S. debt limit to avoid a default after Oct. 17. The yen rose as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proceeded with a sales-tax increase and stimulus measures. Sweden’s krona jumped as a report showed manufacturing expanded faster than economists predicted.
“The dollar is trading with a very slight or mildly weaker bias,” Nick Bennenbroek, the head of currency strategy at Wells Fargo Securities in New York, said in a phone interview. “The market is in a bit of wait-and-see mode. The recent experience in terms of political battles, shall we say, has been that the impact on markets has been limited.”
…“The market is anticipating that a shutdown means the Fed will also maintain its easy policy stance for longer because of the risks to the U.S. economy,” said Greg Gibbs, a senior currency strategist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in Singapore. “We are seeing some strength in the European currencies and a bit of weakness in the U.S. dollar.”
The primary argument being made on the right, in the capital, for the gold standard is its potential to boost creation of abundant good jobs. Only secondarily is it presented as a counter to inflation and nowhere as a means further to privilege the overprivileged. Unlike what Postel implies, few of the serious gold standard proponents are recommending gold as a speculative commodity investment. Most important, virtually all proponents of the gold standard (whether the proponents be the historicist classical or aspirational Austrian) wholeheartedly are committed to the prosperity of workers.
Hedge funds’ combined holdings in gold futures rose the most this month as continued U.S. monetary stimulus spurred investors to sell short contracts and sent prices toward the first quarterly advance in a year.
The net-long position in bullion jumped 12 percent to 78,654 futures and options in the week ended Sept. 24, the most since Aug. 27, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. Long wagers gained 1.8 percent and short bets fell 17 percent, the biggest drop in four weeks. Combined net-long holdings across 18 U.S.-traded commodities climbed 1.7 percent, the first gain in September.
Enlarge image Newly Molded Gold
Gold rose 9.2 percent this quarter after a slump into a bear market in April spurred sales of coins, jewelry and bars. The Federal Reserve refrained from trimming bond buying this month, surprising investors. The pace of purchases could remain steady at $85 billion a month into January as policy makers wait for more signs of economic recovery, Fed Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans said Sept. 27. Bullion rose 70 percent from December 2008 to June 2011 as the central bank bought debt.
“The Fed has made it clear that the economy is weak, and the stimulus spigot will be open full-bore,” said John Stephenson, who helps oversee about C$2.7 billion ($2.6 billion) at First Asset Investment Management Inc. in Toronto. “That means they’re continuing to inject more into the money supply, and that is a bullish argument for gold.”
The Senate on Friday overwhelmingly approved stopgap spending legislation to keep the federal government open without gutting President Obama’s health care law, setting up a weekend showdown with the House that will decide whether much of the government shuts down at midnight Monday.
The 54-to-44 vote for final passage followed a more critical moment when the Senate, in a bipartisan rebuke to Republican hard-liners, cut off debate on the legislation. The 79-to-19 vote included the top Republican leadership and easily exceeded the 60-vote threshold to break a filibuster.
The Senate then voted along party lines, 54 to 44, to strip out House Republican language that tied further funding of the government to defunding the health care law. That vote required only a simple 51-vote majority.
…Now Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio faces a defining choice: accept the Senate bill, which funds the government through Nov. 15 without Republican policy prescriptions, or listen to his conservatives, who will accept a government shutdown unless serious damage is done to the health care law.
