Merk Hard Currency Fund Trusts Europe

European rates are on the rise. The Fed is nearing the end of its rate-hiking cycle. Gold is glittering past $500 an ounce.

Does this spell doom for the U.S. dollar?

The ECB made the Euro more attractive this week with its first rate hike in half a decade, but the U.S. dollar is still up over 13% this year against the European currency. Axel Merk, portfolio manager of the $5 million (MERKX Quote)Merk Hard Currency Fund, says the dollar's dominance will soon come to an end as the ECB gets aggressive and the U.S. fiscal house gets messier. Merk's fund, which invests in short-term money-market instruments of countries pursuing so-called "sound monetary policy", is down 3.1% since its May inception. More than 40% of the fund is comprised of Euro-denominated short-term bonds. ...