The Australian dollar has continued its recent good run, surging to an eight-month high overnight, as investors' appetite for risk grew. 
The Aussie has been steadily climbing over the past few weeks on the back of a rebound in the price of commodities, and continued its upward surge thanks to surprising moves by the European Cental Bank and the People's Bank of China.
The dollar rose as high as US75.84c, its highest point since   July. At 6:30am, it is fetching around US75.70c.  
Commodity currencies were boosted when China surprised markets by fixing higher its onshore yuan rate against the dollar by the fastest pace this year.
A stronger yuan was good news for commodities as it signalled a likely increase in demand from China, the world's top commodity's consumer.
In Europe, a day after Mario Draghi unleashed a stimulus 'bazooka', ECB Governing Council member Erkki Liikanen said the central bank had not run out of tools to boost the economy and would continue to support it until it reaches its inflation target of almost 2 per cent.
The moves by the central banks sparked a risk-on mood for investors that helped commodity-based currencies at the expense of the US greenback, said Tempus Inc currency strategist Juan Perez.
"It's a couple of very accommodative news pieces for the market," Perez said. "The appetite for risk is on the rise."
European and US stocks are also sharply higher, setting up the Australian sharemarket for a strong start on Monday.