By Virginia Harrison, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — The dollar slipped against the euro but gained on commodity currencies during Asian trading Friday, as risk appetite faded on fears about the global economy.
The euro EURUSD +0.12% rose to $1.3484, up from $1.3458 in North American trading late Thursday.
Against the Japanese yen USDJPY -0.12% , the greenback bought ¥76.84, down from ¥76.97 late Thursday.
The dollar index DXY -0.07% , which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of six other major currencies, slipped to 78.143, from 78.298.
“Data has tended to play second fiddle to a tense European narrative [this month] that has tended to favor safe-haven currencies at the expense of the growth proxies and commodity currencies,” said Stewart Hall of RBC Dominion Securities.
The commodity-tied Australian dollar suffered during Asian trading hours, falling below parity with the U.S. currency for the first time since Oct. 12, as risk aversion increased on concerns about Europe’s debt crisis and global economic growth.
The Australian dollar AUDUSD -0.18% recently traded at 99.99 U.S. cents.
“Stubbornly high European yield prices as well as escalating contagion fears have sent high-yielding currencies down a slippery slope this week, with the U.S. dollar being the main beneficiary of the outflow of funds from risk into defensive assets,” said Tim Waterer, senior FX dealer at CMC Markets in Sydney.
“The Australian dollar is all of a sudden looking very mortal again after being a darling of the currency market for much of 2011,” he said.
Meanwhile, the British pound GBPUSD +0.05% rose to 1.5768, up from $1.5751 late Thursday.
Virginia Harrison is a MarketWatch reporter based in Sydney.
