Investors want safety, and they are not finding it in the dollar. This is a change. In the “risk-on, risk-off” regime of correlated trading, which has adhered since 2007, rising tension has translated into a rise in the dollar. Higher equity volatility (in the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s Vix index), or falling emerging market stocks both entail a stronger dollar.
The Vix is up 17 per cent for the year, and emerging markets have underperformed developed ones by some 12 per cent since their peak in October. But the dollar trade-weighted index is at its lowest since October, down 14 per cent since last year’s Greece crisis, and down 3 per cent for the year.
There are many explanations for dollar weakness. The Federal Reserve is the most aggressively doveish of the world’s central banks. US political checks and balances currently add up to a ghastly and irresponsible fiscal mess. Those who fear the US is adulterating its currency point to the gold price, which this week rebounded to an all-time nominal high.