Dollar zigzags as Bernanke says economy still vulnerable, suggests steps Fed may take

Dollar zigzags after Bernanke speech

NEW YORK — The dollar zigzagged Friday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke laid out steps the central bank would consider to bolster a weakening economy, but was valgue on the specifics.

Bernanke said the Fed would consider a large-scale purchase of securities, likely government debt. Such a move would drive interest rates lower, which could trigger more spending by Americans but would make dollar-denominated assets less attractive to investors.

The Fed chairman stopped short of laying out a specific course of action, but said that the Fed would act if the economy deteriorated significantly and prices dropped.

“He’s open and ready to continue down path of quantitative easing if need be,” said Michael Woolfolk of the Bank of New York Mellon. “The consequences of lower interest rates are going to come home to roost.”

The dollar got an immediate bounce after Bernanke’s speech was made public, but gave back most gains in later trading.

The euro slid as low as $1.2677 immediately after Bernanke began talking, but recovered to $1.2763 in midday trading, up from $1.2703 late Thursday.

The dollar also slumped versus currencies of countries that are big exporters of commodities, which tend to rise when investors’ sentiment improves. The Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and Brazilian real all rose against the dollar, as did the Scandinavian currencies.

The dollar held on to gains versus the Japanese yen, another currency perceived as a safe haven by traders. It rose to 84.94 Japanese yen from about 84.60 yen before the speech began. The dollar was worth 84.38 yen late Thursday.

The Fed chief also said that the economy remained vulnerable to shocks, and the recovery in output and the jobs market has slowed more than the Federal Reserve had expected. On Friday, the government said that the economy grew at a 1.6 percent pace, down sharply from its previous estimate of 2.4 percent growth. Economists had expected the revision would be even larger, showing only 1.4 percent growth.