Lehna wunderte sich heute im Dow - Thread, warum bei dem neuen Höchstand des Dow keine Euphorie ausbrach. Zumindest eine Erklärung dafür findet sich heute in dem Artikel von Liz Rappaport / Street.com. : Es ist der schwache Dollar. Einige europäische Money – Manager fragen sich : Rally, welche Rally ? Denn wenn der Dow um 30% steigt und der Dollar - Index währenddessen 30% verliert, ergibt sich ein Nullsummenspiel.
Stocks Gorge on Dollar Dip
Money made by large-cap companies in higher-valued currencies translates into bigger profits when counted in dollars. But celebrating a weak greenback is not prudent for very long.
A weak dollar is eventually inflationary, and in the short run, stock market rallies amid a falling currency can look a bit like a dog chasing its tail.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above the 13,000 milestone Wednesday, after gaining 1.1% on the day to finish at a record 13,089.65. The Dow is up 4.8% since Jan. 26, when the trade-weighted Dollar Index peaked this year. Since then, the dollar has fallen 4.5%, so the Dow's gains are just better than a wash. The S&P 500 has added 5.1% in the same period, closing up 1% Wednesday at 1495.42, its highest level sine September 2000.
"Are stocks going up or is the measuring stick going down?" asks Jeffrey Saut, chief investment strategist at Raymond James. The Dollar Index has lost over 33% since its peak in January 2002, he writes, while the Dow has rallied about 30% in the same period.
Saut quips: "I know money mangers in Europe saying, 'What rally?' "
That may be true when looking at the broad indices, even as proxies such as the Russell 2000, S&P MidCap 400, Dow Transports and Dow Utilities hit record levels in concert with the DJIA.
But according to Merrill Lynch's list of the top 50 companies in the S&P 500 by ratio of foreign sales to total sales, investors are definitely buying into the idea that the weak dollar means strong profits. And for some stocks, the resulting gains have more than made up for the dollar's fall.
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