Currency markets continued to display signs of risk aversion on Tuesday, with safe havens including the yen rising and riskier currencies including the Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar sliding.
Stock markets in Asia starkly demonstrated the mood of investors on Tuesday, with the benchmark Australian equity index, the S&P/ASX200, plunging 2.50% to 4,985.60 points just after midday in Sydney.
The AUD/USD pair fell 0.48% to $0.6955 on Tuesday afternoon in Sydney, from $0.6990 at the close of trade in New York on Monday, hitting an intraday low of $0.6945, and coming close to breaking through a six-year low of $0.6912.
The safe-haven Japanese yen was trading more than 20 pips higher against the US dollar at ¥119.56 on Tuesday morning in Tokyo.