THE TIPSTER
The greenback’s woes continue with the trade-weighted dollar index hitting a new five-week low. Dollar investors continue to be nervous about the ability of the world’s largest economy to avoid a double-dip recession given the latest slew of poor economic data. This suggests that further weakness in the greenback could well be ahead. Capital Spreads quotes a price of 82.230-82.260 for the US dollar index December contract.
Euro-US dollar has been flirting with the $1.29 level for several weeks now and has tried twice to break through this firm resistance. Traders should watch out for movements in the currency around this level, which could point to both strength in and momentum behind the single currency. This could push the market to as high as $1.31. Cantor Index offers a daily euro-dollar spread of $1.2854-$1.2855
In yet further evidence of a weakening dollar, the Swiss franc yesterday broke through parity with the dollar for the first time in nine months as traders continued to seek safe haven plays for their funds. There may be no shortage of positive economic signals, including the stronger than forecast US retail sales numbers, but there’s still an underlying theme of pessimism. Each time another wave of fear goes through the market, the Swiss franc has the potential to edge slightly higher. The current IG Index price on dollar-Swissie is SFr1.0038-SFr1.0041.
As gold hit a new all-time high of $1,276.50 yesterday, the South African rand dipped towards its recent four-year lows of R10.85 versus sterling, reaching a low of R10.95. The South African rand, of course, has a close positive correlation with gold and any continued strength in the yellow precious metal should see it take out those four-year lows and head towards R10.50 or even R10.00. Spread Co offers a spread on sterling-rand of R10.9852-R11.0052.