Dollar Declines in Nervous Trading

The dollar staged a sharp retreat in nervous trading Monday as the extended closure of 70 Ohio savings and loan associations fanned worries about the American banking system.

Gold prices rose to their highest levels in almost a month as the dollar fell and traders sought a haven for funds. Republic National Bank in New York said gold bullion was bid at $302.90 an ounce as of 4 p.m. EST, against $294.50 late Friday.

Among currencies to shoot higher against the dollar were the British pound, which climbed more than three cents, and the West German mark, which spurted up almost seven pfennigs.

“It got clobbered today,” Joseph Volpicella, foreign exchange manager at the New York branch of Union Bank of Switzerland, said of the dollar.

The Federal Reserve Board said its measure of the dollar against the currencies of 10 other industrialized nations fell 1.4%.