On Monday , Asian currencies sliding as the rapid spread of the corona-virus beyond China drove fears of a pandemic and sent investors flocking to gold and the dollar for safety. The Singapore dollar, Thai baht and Korean won - all sensitive to China's economic fortunes - were sold for greenbacks.
A surge of infections in South Korea and Italy, and an alarming rise in the death toll in Iran over the weekend, triggered steep falls in Asian share markets and Wall Street stock futures as investors fled to safe havens such as gold.
The World Health Organization said it was worried about the growing number of cases without any clear link to China, where the virus' outbreak is believed to have begun. Italy, South Korea and Iran all posted sharp rises in infections over the weekend. South Korea now has more than 600 cases, Italy more than 150 and Iran 43 cases.
In South Korea, authorities reported another 161 new cases on Monday, taking the total to 763. A seventh death was also reported.
Italy has halted the carnival of Venice, shut schools, and sealed off affected towns across its wealthy north, but is struggling to find out how and where the virus' spread began.
Cases in China continue to climb - with every fresh rise only adding to the growing human cost of the virus and to its economic disruption as China's economy idles.
The Australian dollar , sensitive to developments in the outbreak because Australia is a major exporter of commodities, fell through $0.66 to touch a fresh 11-year low in early trade.
The risk aversion, which also saw U.S. stock futures tumble and gold and bonds rise, unusually extended to the Japanese yen.
The dollar headed back toward an almost three-year peak touched last week, before soft economic data knocked it from its perch on Friday.
Gold prices rallied to $1,681.25, the highest since February 2013, during early Monday. The yellow metal recently benefited from the rise in the corona-virus cases outside China while no respite from the contagion inside the dragon nation earlier fulled the safe-haven. It should be noted that the bullion’s prices have been pulled back to $1664.70 by the press time.
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