NEW YORK - The US dollar recorded a deep decrease in late trading on Saturday as demand for safe haven shot up.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, decreased 0.75 percent at 96.0468 in late trading. The discovery of a new COVID-19 variant in South Africa sent jitters across global markets on Friday. Surging demand for safe haven drove 10-year Treasury bond yield to 1.479 percent 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 dollars from 1.1209 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound was up to 1.3335 dollars from 1.3321 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar decreased to 0.7118 dollar from 0.7185 dollar.
US stocks see heavy
losses on concern over
new COVID-19 variant
US stocks plunged on Sunday due to widespread concern over a new variant of COVID-19 detected in South Africa. The White House said travel restrictions would be implemented next Monday between the United States and eight African countries because of the emergence of the new COVID-19 variant. “As a precautionary measure until we have more information, I am ordering additional air travel restrictions from South Africa and seven other countries,” US President Joe Biden said on Friday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 905.04 points, or 2.53 percent, to 34,899.34. The S&P 500 fell 106.84 points, or 2.27 percent, to 4,594.62. The Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 353.57 points, or 2.23 percent, to 15,491.66.
The Dow shed as much as over 1,000 points in the shortened session, which ended early at 1 pm Eastern Standard Time as part of the arrangement during the Thanksgiving holiday. The Cboe Volatility Index, widely considered as the best fear gauge in the stock market, shot up 54.04 percent closing at 28.62 points on Friday.
