Equities Are Less Volatile Than Major World Currencies: Chart

(Bloomberg) -- When are equities safer than currencies? Almost never, at least until now. The one-month implied volatility of the S&P 500 Index is more than a full percentage point below Deutsche Bank's measure of G-7 currency volatility over the same period, a rare event caused by the combination of a falling dollar and rising U.S. equities. It appears that investors have decided that low-yielding currency returns are riskier than equities, inverting the typical risk/reward relationship.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Fullem in New York at rfullem5@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Boris Korby at bkorby1@bloomberg.net, Sophie Caronello, Mark Tannenbaum