Dollar Drops as Risk Appetite Grows

In late morning, the euro rose to $1.4274 today, while the British pound was gaining at $1.6557.

The dollar was having varied results so far today. The greenback was gaining against another safe haven currency, up to 94.7850 Japanese yen by late morning. But the dollar fell to 1.0886 Canadian dollars, and was flat at 1.0668 Swiss francs.

On the whole, reports are circulating that investors are moving away from the buck and into riskier investments today, as better-than-expected earnings and data showing a rise in existing home sales helped push the Dow Jones Industrial Average above 9,000.

What kinds of investments were they making? Upward moves from Ford(F Quote), AT&T(T Quote), Wyeth(WYE Quote), 3M(MMM Quote), Alcoa(AA Quote) and eBay(EBAY Quote), to name a few, helped bolster the markets today.

Meanwhile, the Australian dollar was also tracking in positive territory, up at $0.8213.