Dollar pressured by U.S. budget deadlock

Reuters (7/10) - The dollar remained near an eight-month low against a basket of currencies on Monday as a U.S. budget deadlock in Congress showed no sign of breaking. Investors flocked to perceived safe havens like the yen and the Swiss franc, driving the dollar to its weakest since mid-August against the Japanese currency. As the U.S. government moved into the second week of a shutdown and an October 17 deadline to increase the nation's borrowing limit approaches, neither Republicans nor Democrats offered any sign of impending agreement on either the shutdown or the debt ceiling. Both blamed the other side for the impasse. The dollar index .DXY fell 0.2 percent to 79.95, not far from an eight-month low of 79.627 hit on Thursday. The dollar fell to as low as 96.79 yen, its lowest since August 12, before rebounding slightly to 96.92 yen, down 0.6 percent on the day. The dollar fell 0.4 percent to 0.9032 Swiss franc, slipping toward Thursday's low of 0.8965, the lowest since late February, 2012. The euro rose 0.2 percent to $1.3578, not far from Thursday's eight-month high of $1.3645. The euro's rise was much of the reason for the decline in the dollar index. The currency's status as a safe haven has also been undermined by expectations that any damage done to the U.S. economy would be countered by the Fed sticking to its stimulus. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/07/us-markets-forex-idUSBRE9900VQ20131007