Emerging Currencies Weaken as US-Iran Standoff Lifts Dollar

Money isn't just paper and coins — countries have different kinds of money, called currencies.

The United States and Iran are in a big disagreement right now.

Because of this, people who buy and sell oil worry that oil will be hard to get, so the price of oil jumped.

When oil costs more, the money of many other countries becomes worth less compared to the US dollar.

That is what happened on Monday to the money of South Korea, Hungary, Brazil, South Africa and other countries.

The US dollar got stronger, partly from Middle East worries and partly because everyone is waiting for fresh numbers about how fast prices are rising in the US.

Last week, the US reported a surprise: some jobs were cut in July.

Now traders are watching a big report coming Wednesday that will show how much prices went up in America.

Meanwhile, stocks in developing countries rose a little, helped by computer-chip related companies in Taiwan.

Some people think those stocks are a bargain because they now cost less than half as much as US stocks.