It is easy enough to justify the Australian dollar's position at the foot of the weekly league table.
Having begun the week in fairly robust form, it turned tail on Thursday morning after another massive swing in the Australian employment numbers. A monster increase in August was revised down by 75 per cent and the forecast 20,000 increase for September was turned into a loss of 30,000 jobs.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics said there was a problem with the seasonal adjustment but investors didn't care; they sold the Aussie.
Another matter weighing on the Australian dollar was a growing nervousness among investors about the global economy. Their latest concern is Germany (and by extension the eurozone). Figures last week showed German factory orders, exports and industrial production falling at the fastest monthly pace since the financial crisis.
At the end of the week the International Monetary Fund downgraded its growth forecasts for the third time this year. Investors decided it was time to start worrying; they sent global equity prices lower and moved into the safe-haven Japanese yen, making it the week's top performer.
The US dollar fared nearly as badly as the Aussie. Its particular problem was the minutes of last month's Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting, which came out on Wednesday evening.
Investors interpreted the minutes as meaning a lower appetite at the Fed for bringing interest rates up to 'normal' levels. Crucially, the minutes noted that the strengthening dollar reduced the need to tighten policy. There was also apparently a debate about whether the guidance should continue to say it would be 'a considerable time' before rates started to head higher.
Because that phrase kept its place in the guidance, investors wound down any expectation of an imminent increase.
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