After a bearish last week that forced emerging market currencies down versus refuge investments in the U.S. and Japan, risk appetite returned timidly today, allowing the South African rand to climb as commodities rebounded.

The Canadian currency climbed from the lowest rate in 2010 versus its U.S. counterpart as a positive real state report combined with a slight recovery in the crude oil rates gave strength for the loonie to trade below $1.07 in this start of this week’s session.

The U.S. dollar profited last week from a wave of uncertainty that brought investors to opt for safer bets in foreign-exchange markets, and this trend might last for a longer period mainly versus European currencies as the economic outlook in the region is far from optimistic.

The euro ended this week posting a weekly drop versus most of the main currencies as the financial situation in several Eurozone member countries is damping demand for the single currency, after a sense of instability became predominant in the economic bloc.

The Russian ruble had its worst weekly performance in 2010 as demand for the crude oil declined specially in Europe, as uncertainty regarding some EU members budget deficits plagued markets and rose pessimism among traders in the region.

The Chilean peso was the best performing currency among the commodity-linked ones in foreign-exchange markets this Friday as a positive economic report in the South American nation allowed the peso to gain versus multiple main currencies including the U.S. dollar, despite strong risk version in trading markets today.

The pound posted a weekly decline versus multiple important currencies of its trading partners as a strong sentiment of risk aversion towards assets in Europe made traders to opt for refuge currencies overseas, as the British economic outlook is far from positive.

The dollar ended this week’s session posting a weekly advance versus most of the 16 main traded currencies in foreign-exchange markets as an unemployment report published this Friday brought more positive figures that are providing support for the greenback’s bullish pattern.

The trading scenario this Thursday was entirely against the Mexican currency, which faced worse-than-expected data coming from the U.S., its main trading partner, and a strong sentiment of pessimism as European public accounts are deteriorating.

The Canadian dollar touched a new record low for 2010 versus its U.S. counterpart as a massive wave of risk aversion irradiating from Europe caused commodities and equities markets to decline worldwide.