THE CANADIAN PRESS

The Canadian dollar plunged under 80 cents US this morning, pulled down by overall economic fears and falling commodity prices.

The currency traded down to 79.80 cents US, pulling up later to 80.08 cents, still down 2.31 cents on the morning, after dropping 1.38 cents yesterday.

The loonie which hit its all-time high of 110.31 cents US almost a year ago, last Nov. 7 hadn't been below 80 cents since mid-2005.

The commodity-linked currency was hit as crude oil was down $3.27 at US$68.91 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange despite expectations of an imminent production cut by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Gold fell $9.60 to US$758.40 an ounce and copper sagged 8.05 cents to US$1.9265 a pound.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said today that the current economic woes are "likely to cause recession."

That followed the Bank of Canada's statement yesterday as it cut interest rates by a quarter-point that "the global economy appears to be heading into a mild recession, led by a U.S. economy already in recession."

George Davis, senior technical analyst at RBC Capital Markets says the American dollar has been rallying because financial institutions and corporations continue to have trouble getting U.S.-dollar funding.

At the same time, Davis said, the dramatic selloff in commodity markets and equity "implies a ratcheting-down of global growth expectations which is also a negative factor for the Canadian dollar."

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I have a few US dolla to sell - Go American dolla!!