Stocks suffered their sharpest drop in three months in Asia on Friday and oil tumbled after the detection of a new and possibly vaccine-resistant coronavirus variant sent investors scurrying toward the safety of bonds, the yen and the dollar.
"You shoot first and ask questions later when this sort of news erupts," said Ray Attrill, head of FX strategy at National Australia Bank in Sydney, as the news rattled currency traders.
South Africa's rand dropped more than 1% to a one-year low on Friday and the risk-sensitive Australian and New Zealand dollars fell to three-month trough."Markets are anticipating the risk here of another global wave of infections if vaccines are ineffective," said Moh Siong Sim, a currency analyst at the Bank of Singapore., on course for their worst week since early October. Dow Jones futures fell 1% , while FTSE futures fell 1.9%.
Though that leaves yields inside recent ranges, heat has come out of wagers on the pace of rate hikes and the December 2022 Fed funds futures contract was last up 9 bps.
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