UPDATE 1-Ackman likes 'pricing power,' not gold, vs weak dlr

(Recasts, adds comments and background)

By Herbert Lash and Al Yoon

NEW YORK Oct 20 (Reuters) - Activist investor Bill Ackman on Tuesday shrugged off gold as a hedge against a weakening dollar and said he prefers to own companies with the ability to command strong prices to counter currency depreciation.

Ackman's comments were in sharp contrast to those made a day earlier at the same investors' conference by David Einhorn, president of Greenlight Capital, who said he is buying gold as a hedge against a climate of rising U.S. interest rates. See [ID:nN19287885].

Ackman, founder of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, said "I am not a gold fan." He called gold bullion XAU= "a greater fool investment."

Asked about the fate of the dollar, Ackman would say only that he is prepared if the currency fell further.

"The best protection against the dollar is to own very high quality businesses with pricing power ... such as McDonald's (MCD.N), he said at the Value Investing Congress, an investors' conference, in New York.