U.S. Stocks Extend Gains; Gold Price Rises More Than 3%; Abe Win Boosts Yen Against U.S. Dollar

U.S. Stocks Extend Gains (Bloomberg)

On Monday, investment in equity exchange-traded funds (ETFs) reached a five-year high, fueling a rise in U.S. stocks and extending the S&P 500’s record rally. “The earnings reflect a growing economy, but not a robust economy, not a runaway economy,” John Carey, a fund manager at Boston-based Pioneer Investment Management Inc., said. “There was concern that the economy may be doing a little better than the Fed was estimating and that might lead to an earlier tapering. Now with fairly modest economic growth and slow earnings growth, I don’t think people are going to be as worried about the tapering.”

Gold Price Rises More Than 3% (CNBC)

After gold prices passed the milestone of $1300, excited investors fueled a three-percent rise in gold stocks Monday. “With more shorts being built over the last couple of months, it’s not surprising to see that the shorts have to cover their positions with the increase of prices,” said Carols Sanchez, director of commodities and asset management at CPM Group.

Abe Win Boosts Yen against U.S. Dollar (Reuters)

As had been expected by many, today Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proved victorious in elections for his parliament’s upper house, causing the yen to rise against the U.S. dollar for the first time in four sessions. “Primarily, the yen’s rise against the dollar was a buy-the-rumor, sell-the-fact kind of thing,” said Vassili Serebriakov, currency strategist at BNP Paribas in New York.