Commodity Currencies Fall Amid Rising Risk Aversion

Commodity currencies such as the Australian, the New Zealand and the Canadian dollars weakened against their major counterparts in the Asian session on Friday amid rising risk aversion, with some of the markets paring their early gains and drifting into negative territory, despite the modest gains on Wall Street and the surge in crude oil prices overnight.

Crude oil rose amid mounting expectations that Saudi Arabia and Russia will agree to curb production. Crude oil for October delivery are currently up $0.27 at $49.18 a barrel.

Meanwhile, gold fell 0.4 percent, easing from its weekly advance to 0.8 percent.

Thursday, the NZ dollar held steady against the other major rivals. Meanwhile, the Australian and the Canadian dollar showed mixed trading against their major rivals.

The Australian dollar rose against the U.S. dollar and held steady against the yen and the euro.

The Canadian dollar rose against the U.S. dollar and the euro, but fell against the yen.

In the Asian trading, the Australian dollar fell to more than a 2-week low of 1.4860 against the euro, nearly a 1-month low of 0.9769 against the Canadian dollar and a 2-day low of 0.7625 against the U.S. dollar, from yesterday's closing quotes of 1.4767, 0.9823 and 0.7685, respectively. If the aussie extends its downtrend, it is likely to find support around 1.51 against the euro, 0.95 against the loonie and 0.74 against the greenback.

Against the yen and the NZ dollar, the aussie dropped to 76.42 and 1.0525 from yesterday's closing quotes of 76.76 and 1.0538, respectively. The kiwi is likely to find support around 74.00 against the yen and 1.04 against the kiwi.

The NZ dollar fell to nearly a 3-week low of 1.5648 against the euro and a 2-day low of 0.7242 against the U.S. dollar, from yesterday's closing quotes of 1.5563 and 0.7284, respectively. If the kiwi extends its downtrend, it is likely to find support around 1.60 against the euro and against the greenback.

Against the yen, the kiwi edged down to 72.57 from yesterday's closing value of 72.75. On the downside, 69.00 is seen as the next support level for kiwi.

The Canadian dollar fell to 78.19 against the yen, from an early 2-day high of 78.51. The loonie is likely to find support around the 77.00 area.

Against the euro and the U.S. dollar, the loonie dropped to 1.4520 and 1.2812 from yesterday's closing quotes of 1.4509 and 1.2781, respectively. If the loonie extends its downtrend, it is likely to find support around 1.48 against the euro and 1.30 against the greenback.

Looking ahead, the German PPI for July is due to be released in the pre-European session at 2:00 am ET.

U.K. public sector finance data for July is slated for release later in the day.

In the New York session, Canada CPI data for July and retail sales data for June are set to be published.