US dollar falls amid rising risk aversion; discovery of new COVID-19 variant sends jitters across markets

The US dollar recorded a deep decrease in late trading on Friday as demand for a safe haven shot up. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, decreased 0.75 per cent at 96.0468 in late trading.

The discovery of a new COVID-19 variant in South Africa sent jitters across global markets on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Surging demand for a safe haven drove 10-year Treasury bond yield to 1.479 per cent on Friday, down 16.2 basis points from the previous trading session.

Commodity-based currencies were in a free fall on Friday morning as the price of commodities plunged with global equities, said a note by foreign exchange and international payment solutions provider Tempus, Inc.

In late New York trading, the euro was up to $1.1313 from $1.1209 in the previous session, and the British pound was up to $1.3335 from $1.3321 dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar decreased to AU $0.7118 from AU $0.7185 .

The US dollar bought 113.13 Japanese yen, lower than 115.36 Japanese yen of the previous session. The US dollar decreased to 0.9217 Swiss franc from 0.9357 Swiss franc, and it increased to 1.2783 Canadian dollars from 1.2648 Canadian dollars.