Are investors fleeing the dollar?

Now the interesting time for the dollar begins. Despite record monetary and fiscal stimulus, the dollar through mid-year held its own against the world's other major currencies, aided by a general flight to safety and risk aversion by institutional investors during the financial crisis and recession.

But now it appears that both the U.S. and global recessions are bottoming, and the ensuing increase in risk appetite and desire to deploy capital in higher-return assets is generating a long-predicted flight out of the dollar.

The dollar weakened almost two cents versus the euro, British pound, and Swiss franc Friday, to $1.4137, $1.6138, and $1.0957, respectively, on a global search for higher returns. The dollar also fell 1.4 yen versus Japan's yen to 95.45.