The Australian dollar slid below $0.92 on Friday after more investors hurried to lock in gains in one of the year's best-performing currencies. The Aussie slid as far as $0.9151, down from $0.9237 seen here late Thursday, and well off a 15-month high of $0.9407 hit on Monday.
It later steadied around $0.9195 but was still threatening a major upward trend channel that goes all the way back to March, when it was languishing at 63 cents. "The Aussie's break below $0.9180 is significant and points to further losses," said Patrick Bennett, an analyst at Societe Generale in Hong Kong. He said the Aussie could fall as far as $0.9030-0.9050. Against the yen, Aussie weakened to 81.78, from Thursday's 82.31 and well under a high of 84.22 hit last week. Profit-taking also hit most Asian stock markets on Friday, dragging share prices lower.