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Yen, Swiss Franc Rises as Risk Appetite Falls
The Japanese yen and Swiss franc rose against major currencies on Monday amid a sell-off in technology stocks as markets weighed the fallout from Chinese startup DeepSeek’s launch of a free, open-source artificial intelligence model.
The company has launched a free AI tool that it says uses low-cost chips and less data, appearing to challenge widespread market bets that AI will boost demand for supply chains.
The yen and Swiss franc rose, while the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell 6 basis points to a one-month low of 4.561 percent as investors moved toward safe-haven assets and government bonds.
The S&P 500 index fell 1.6 percent to 6,003.04, weighed down by a decline in technology stocks. Chipmaker Nvidia Corp tumbled about 14 percent to $123.02.
"U.S. stock markets are selling off strongly after foreign investors bought large amounts of U.S. stocks in December. This is a contrarian signal," said Mark Chandler, chief market analyst at Bannon Burn Global Forex in New York.
The yen rose 0.95 percent to 154.56 per dollar after rising to 153.71, its highest since mid-December. The Swiss franc gained 0.57 percent to $0.90105.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.34 percent to 107.30, after falling to its lowest since mid-December.
