By Gina Lee

Investing.com – The dollar was down on Thursday morning in Asia while the yen, a fellow safe-haven asset, remained near a seven-week high. Concerns about the rapid spread of the new variant of the omicron COVID-19 and its rapid global expansion also affected South African rand and some other more risky currencies.

At 11:03 PM ET (04:03 GMT), The Index that Tracks the Greenback against other currencies fell 0.06% to 95.968. After rising to 96.938 in July 2020, the index has remained steady at the midpoint of its range for the last two weeks.

It was up 0.2% to 113.07.

Both the pair edged up 0.15 to 0.7115, and both were up 0.223% to 0.6823.

Both the pair increased by 0.03%, to 6.3693, and the other pair gained 0.16% to 1.3298.

Closed to Tuesday’s low at 112.535 against yen on Tuesday, the dollar was unchanged. This level has not been seen since Oct. 11. After a greater than 1% increase in the previous session, it was 0.12% lower against the South African rand.

News that the omicron variant could have a higher spread rate than the previous versions rattled the markets. It also indicated that travel banks would be returning to place lockdowns which could negatively impact the economy’s recovery. On Wednesday, the U.S. reported the first reported case. Australia, Canada and Japan also reported the cases, despite having tightened their borders.

The number of cases of the omicron variant in South Africa has doubled since Tuesday, when it was first discovered.

Although there is uncertainty about omicron’s effects, the Chairman of U.S. Federal Reserve stated that the Fed may accelerate asset tapering during its December 14-15 meeting. This could also mean a quicker-than-expected interest rate hike.

“If anything else, Powell’s repeated testimony shows you that he isn’t in the least unhappy with how markets have interpreted his earlier statements,” Ray Attrill (National Australia Bank) Head of FX Strategy at National Australia Bank wrote in a note.

“The truth is we are less than a week into the two-to-three-week timeframe that anyone worth listening to, epidemiologists, not market analysts, say is necessary before an informed judgment can be made with respect both to the seriousness of this COVID-19 variant and the efficacy of existing vaccines,” the note added.