* Dollar hits decade-plus highs against loonie, Norwegian
crown
* Worries about China pressure export-oriented currencies
* Dollar down vs euro, yen, franc
(Updates prices, adds quotes, changes byline)
By Dion Rabouin and Richard Leong
NEW YORK, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The dollar soared against
oil-linked currencies on Tuesday, touching an 11-year high
against the Canadian dollar CAD=D3 and a 13-year high versus
the Norwegian crown NOK= as concerns of excess supply and soft
demand sent crude prices to near seven-year lows.
Falling oil and weak metal prices underpinned bets central
banks of export-reliant economies would embark on more stimulus
to weaken their currencies in a bid to help exporters.
"It's a perfect storm for commodity currencies," said Mazen
Issa, senior currency strategist at TD Securities in New York.
The dollar touched C$1.3623 CAD=D4 , the strongest level
against its Canadian counterpart since mid-2004. It rose 1.5
percent versus the Norwegian crown NOK= , touching 8.8194
crowns, its highest since April 2002.
U.S. crude prices fell to their lowest since early 2009,
last down 0.4 percent at $37.51 a barrel CLc1 . Brent futures
LCOc1 in London fell as low as $39.81 to their lowest since
February 2009. On Monday, they had tumbled 6 percent and touched
their lowest since February 2009. O/R
The Australian dollar also remained on the defensive after
Chinese trade data for November did little to soothe concerns
about China's economic slowdown.
The Aussie fell 0.85 percent to $0.7203 AUD=D4 as this
week's tumble in iron ore prices and the latest Chinese data
weighed on the currency.
But overall, the dollar was mixed on the day, falling
against safe haven currencies like the Japanese yen and Swiss
franc. It fell 0.2 percent to 98.445 against a group of major
currencies. .DXY .
The dollar dropped 0.75 percent against the Swiss franc
CHF= and 0.3 percent versus the yen JPY= . The euro EUR=
moved briefly above $1.09 in afternoon trading, adding to a
recovery from near 7-1/2-month lows sparked by the European
Central Bank's less-than-expected deposit interest rate cut on
Thursday.
The euro was last up 0.5 percent to $1.0887.
"The working assumption is that we are simply correcting the
move that began in the middle of October," said Marc Chandler,
chief global currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman &
Co. "It was partly sparked by the ECB, but clearly colored by
the extreme market positioning."
In the weeks leading up to the ECB's meeting, speculators
had increased bullish bets on the U.S. dollar to their highest
in eight months, according to Reuters calculations and data from
the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Some market analysts had expected the ECB to cut its
already-negative deposit rate as low as -0.5 percent and add to
its quantitative easing program, which it did not.
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OPEC crude production, oil prices http://reut.rs/1TGJ4cj
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