Thursday, October 17, 2013

U.S. Dollar Crumbles, Gold Pops

The Dollar Index (spot) is quoted at 79.7610, down 0.88%. At this rate the buck will be worthless in 113 days.
Gold is acting like a beach ball that had been held under water and then released. The inverse up-move is triple the percentage, up 2.52% at $1,314.60 and looking strong.
This too shall pass but maybe not fast enough for the margin clerks.

From Reuters:
Gold jumps as US budget deal seen delaying stimulus reduction
Gold rushed to a one-week high on Thursday, aided by dollar weakness and belief that a temporary deal to avoid historic U.S. debt default might also prompt the Federal Reserve to hold back from reducing its additional monetary stimulus.
* U.S. shutdown damage seen delaying Fed taper
* Sharply higher volumes trade on COMEX gold in European hours
* Dollar feels the pressure from budget deal; Dagong U.S. downgrade
* Traders await economic data, stimulus outlook (Changes dateline, byline, adds quotes, updates prices)

Unusually for early European trading hours, significant volumes were also seen on COMEX gold futures with over 17,000 lots traded in 10 minutes alone.

Spot gold surged quickly to a one-week high just shy of $1,320 per ounce up more than 2.5 percent on the day. By 1114 GMT, it stood at $1,312.84. The December COMEX gold futures contract touched a high of $1,320.50.

 The dollar fell against a basket of major currency rivals, and was last down 0.7 percent, with dealers citing the budget deal and Chinese rating agency Dagong downgrading the United States to A- from A....MORE

The next date to circle on the calendar is the Oct. 29-30 FOMC meeting.
Here's an example of the semi-nuts form of the Efficient Market Hypothesis from FinViz: