Investing.com — Asian currencies traded mixed on Friday as a sharp selloff in U.S. technology shares drove investors towards haven assets, supporting the Japanese yen, while the Taiwan dollar briefly weakened past a key psychological level.
The U.S. dollar held broadly steady ahead of October payrolls as markets reassessed the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate outlook.
The U.S. dollar index rose 0.1% to 101.70. The USD/JPY pair was up 0.1% at 157.85 after the yen earlier strengthened to a one-week high near 157.40.
The USD/TWD pair stood at 32.988, down 0.3%, after briefly rising above 33. The USD/KRW pair gained 0.2% to 1,360.36, while USD/CNH and USD/CNY were little changed. The Australian and New Zealand dollars fell 0.3% to $0.6914 and $0.5580, while the Singapore dollar weakened 0.2%.
Yen draws safe-haven demand as AI selloff rattles markets
The yen strengthened as much as 0.6% to 157.54 per dollar, outperforming all Group-of-10 currencies as a sharp Wall Street selloff triggered a shift towards safer assets.
The Nasdaq plunged 5.52%, its steepest one-day drop since April 2025, while the S&P 500 fell 4.36%. Investors feared that Democrats’ sweeping midterm victory could lead to tighter scrutiny of artificial-intelligence investment, particularly data-centre construction, prompting a retreat from equities into bonds and haven currencies. The yen subsequently surrendered some of its gains.
The move has revived its traditional safe-haven appeal. During a similar technology-stock selloff last month, the currency briefly strengthened to 156.08 per dollar before reversing much of that advance.
Elsewhere, the Taiwan dollar fell as much as 0.5% to 33.040 per dollar, its weakest since April 2025 and its first break above 33 since then. It was Asia’s worst performer as Taiwan shares dropped around 6% amid foreign outflows, although it later recovered below 33.
The won also faced equity-driven pressure. The KOSPI plunged 8.6%, falling below 5,000 for the first time in nine months and triggering a 20-minute trading halt. Foreign investors sold 3.39 trillion won of shares on Thursday. The dollar-won rate had risen 1.16% from the previous weekly close to around 1,357.9 before reaching 1,360.36.
