Commodity Currencies Plunge As Risk Is Off Again

As the big sell-off continues amid the uncertainty over the extent of damages to the nuclear reactors and the level of radiation in Japan, investors keep dumping riskier assets, like commodities and currencies that strongly depend on them, in favor of safer ones.

The Australian Dollar (AUD) and the Canadian Dollar (CAD) are two of the worst hit currencies today, plunging virtually against each of the other majors, as the oil, gold, copper and most of the other commodities plunge. Both of them are trading significantly lower against the Euro (EUR), US Dollar (USD) and the Japanese Yen (JPY) itself.

The EUR/AUD soared from 1.3860s to 1.4129, the highest level since last November, and is still pushing higher. The AUD/USD, meanwhile, fell from 1.0090s all the way to 0.9814, and the AUD/JPY fell from 82.55 all the way to 79.24 which is a four month low.

The Canadian currency is not doing any better compared to its Australian counterpart, as the EUR/CAD climbed from 1.3620s to 1.3825 and the USD/CAD soared from 0.9790s all the way to one month high at 0.9973.