The dollar edged up against the euro and yen on Monday in extremely thin trade as Wall Street surrendered earlier gains and traders repositioned themselves ahead of U.S. consumer and housing data due this week.

Mini-currency rally is cut short … Is it Japan or U.S.? … Gold stages a rally…  Swiss francs remain well bid…
And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Last year, China was viewed as the driver behind rising commodities prices.

Now the blame for spiraling food and oil prices is increasingly being laid at the door of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke for cutting the fed funds rate to 2% and unleashing yet another wave of inflationary surplus liquidity.

The fallout is now being seen as India, China, the Philippines and Indonesia hike their own interest rates to rein in rising prices.

Consumer prices jumped 7.7% last month, down from 8.5% in April, but inflation there remains top of the list of economic concerns.

The US economy is still more than like to fall into recession, former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan has told British newspaper the Financial Times.

The former chairman of the Federal Reserve said: “I still believe there is a greater than 50 per cent probability of recession.” But, he said, “that probability has receded a little and I think the probability of a severe recession has come down markedly”.