The widely believed inter-relationship between the US Dollar Index and precious metals is an important indicator for the investors. Last week, the dollar index experienced a sharp plunge as the EU plan offered support to the euro, which is the largest weighted currency (57.6%) in the dollar index basket of currencies. Consequently, gold and silver had a strong bullish trend. Now, the Japanese yen is sending the US dollar sharply higher and precious metals southwards.
The Japanese Yen is the second largest component (13.6%) of the US Dollar index. The markets were affected early Monday as the Japanese government sold the yen for the second time since August after hitting another post Great War of the 1940s record high against the greenback. Analysts opine that the currency intervention is often considered a way to spur exports. The Prime Minister of Japan told the parliament after the intervention occurred that the currency intervention was started in order to take every measure against speculative and disorderly moves and to prevent risks to the Japanese economy from materializing. The intervention occurred after the dollar surged to 79.53 yen. The Bank of Japan confirmed the intervention, but did not reveal the size of the action. Economists have confirmed that the intervention has been on a large scale and it is certainly been one of the largest in recent memory.
On Monday morning, the large Japanese yen intervention move sent the dollar surging higher while the dollar denominated assets lower. Gold and silver moved southwards to reach low prices of $1704.29 per ounce and $34.03 per ounce respectively on Monday as the greenback strengthened on the back of large scale selling of Yen in the market.
Many faithful’s still believe that this is not the end of the road for gold and silver. The upward progression is set to resume after a short consolidation period in between. Reasons’ attributing to the rise in the precious metals basket is the fact that the US still has problems aplenty on its hand. The Congressional Super Committee, a bipartisan committee, is also fast approaching its November 23rd deadline to find $1.5 trillion in deficit cuts. According to some strategists at CRT Capital Group, 38.5% of survey respondents believe a failure to reach a deal by the Super Committee would lead to another downgrade of US Credit by the end of the year. And, we do know from recent history that any US downgrades will send the gold and silver prices surging higher and higher.