After months of a downhill slide, the dollar is making gains again and it’s benefiting some exchange traded funds (ETFs).
It lost a little ground last week, but so far in trading today, it seems to have resumed its climb. The gains have helped calm some worries about inflation, reports Tim Paradis for the Associated Press. When the dollar is weak, it can heighten price increases. Commodities like oil then become more attractive to investors who are looking to hedge inflation.
With that, oil retreated from its record high and fell to $125.41. Last week, it gained $10.
Jack Crooks for Money and Markets points to the G7 meeting in early April as the kick-off point for the dollar’s about-face. Traders began to dissect the events of the meeting and perhaps became concerned that a bottom had been hit, and now there’s a battle between the dollar bulls and bears.
There are many ways to play your sentiment on the dollar and other currencies around the world. Rydex‘s CurrencyShares allow investors to hedge the falling dollar relative to a variety of currencies. Market Vectors has two new exchange traded notes (ETNs) that allow investors to go double long or short on the euro. And PowerShares has two ETFs that capitalize on either bullish or bearish sentiment on the dollar.